Mobius: The Final Stand Part 1
by Ravenskid0206
Summary: Only a day after the Meterex, Tails is suffering harshly from the depression of losing Cosmo. But then, a stranger arrives bringing a whole new twist of adventures and danger along with him, as well as the offer to help bring back Cosmo...
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Alright, so this is my super awesome (not) story about Sonic! Yay! lol…

But before I begin, I just want to say that I promise to make this story the best I can, and to put my best effort. I also promise that I'm going to finish this, even if it means dragging out the story to the bitter and messy end. Now, I don't want to spoil anything, but there are going to be quite a few OC's. But there should be new enemies to fight against, right?

Anyways, here I present to you…. 

CHAPTER 1: 

MOBIUS: 1 day after episode 78 of Sonic X  
10:31 pm 

Mobius…

Home of the Legendary Sonic the hedgehog and his valiant friends… A day after the brave heroes had returned from their intergalactic conquest and victory against the alien Meterex, returning home victorious with their planet egg…

The past day had been a joyful one, spent partying and spending time together with each other. But the faint memories of the day slowly faded as the last rays of sunshine vanished over the horizon and the clear, blue sky retreated into the depths of space. Now, late at night, when everyone had retired to their respective houses, peace and tranquility reigned as an unbroken spell of calmness and quietness…

Overhead in the glassy atmosphere, a silver full moon shines brightly upon the tranquil landscape, casting its unearthly radiance and revealing the midsummer night to be a pleasant, warm, and quiet one. The only sound that breaks the peaceful evening is the leaves rustling in the gentle breeze, and the crickets softly chirping nearby. Everywhere; cities, towns, houses, countryside… all quiet. All seems like it should be all peaceful and well and good, yet… 

In one specific house however, that's not the case. It has only been a day after the defeat of the Meterex, and yet, a lonely, two-tailed, yellow fox is curled up in a tight ball on his bed with an aching in his heart. He's sobbing, shaking uncontrollably, the moonlight filtering through the window, making a spotlight around him. Occasionally, he whimpers and cries out loud, but mainly he's quietly crying, still unbelieving of the past few events of his life. 

"B-But why C-Cosmo..? W-Why did y-you have to die..?" The kitsune pitifully sniffs as he continues his tirade.

"W-Why did I have to shoot you? Why c-couldn't you have lived?" Tails quietly mumbled to himself, tears pouring down his face like rain on a cloudy day. . .

"I…. I …. l-loved y-you… C-Cosmo…. I wanted to live with you f-forever…" He confessed as burning hot tears leaked out of his eyes, closing them in vain. 

"IT'S NOT FAIR!" Tails suddenly shouted in rage, eyes wide open. He clenches his teeth shut, balling his hands into fists. Tails then proceeds to pound the pillow he's laying on repeatedly, trying to take out all of his anger and frustration and sadness in one blow.

"IT'S JUST NOT FAIR!" Tails yells out loud, his frustrated voice echoing throughout the night…

Finally, after a minute of beating the stuffing out of the pillow, he tires out and stops. Defeated, Tails remains curled up, hugging his two tails next to his face.

"I…I… you… we… should have been together….". Tails collapses on his bed, sobbing. Near his bed is an open window, a cool breeze wafting through it. A single ray of moonlight pierces through the window, casting its unearthly glow upon a single seed planted in a flower pot. The seed: the last remains of Tails' love, Cosmo, after she heroically sacrificed herself in order to save the galaxy…

Outside the house in the surrounding tall grass to the side of Tails' house, a dark figure is crouched, looking through the window with binoculars. He is taking note of Tails' grief while hiding under the dark cover of night and the outcroppings of the forest. He remains almost invisible in the overreaching branches and leaves above him, the tall grass that surrounds him concealing most of his body. 

Finally, after remaining quiet for so long, he quietly speaks to himself in a distance, forlorn voice.

"Two lovers, destined to be together forever, yet separated in the end by war and suffering. A valiant sacrifice to save everyone, yet in exchange for such a young and innocent life. A truly depressing end to what should have been, yet never will be... It really shouldn't have to be this way…" The figure thinks to himself, depressed, still seemingly lost in a forgotten trance. "…then again, life is a vicious game that isn't played fairly. Unless…." 

The figure puts the binoculars down, but continues to look at the window. Finally, he runs off, disappearing into the dark foliage of the surrounding forest. The tall grass makes a swishing sound as he breaks through it with a determined stride. 

"….perhaps it's time to break the rules" 

The next day:  
8:44 am 

Sunlight shines through the open window, signaling the beginning of a brand new day. Outside, birds start to chirp cheerfully while a few insects fly around lazily, dancing in the gentle breeze. The morning weather happens to be cool and humid, unusual for normal summertime weather.

Tails is still lying curled up in bed, his face damp with tears, eyes shut asleep. As the sound of birds chirping merrily ring out in the morning, he slowly becomes conscious; the rays of light just barely touching his face and eyelids. Finally after a while, Tails slowly opens one blue eye, then the other. He yawns, and stretches his arms out, sitting up in bed, his blanket in a messy pile by his feet. As he is sitting up, Tails slouches his head over, remembering his depressed state about Cosmo's death.

"Ugggghh…" Tails moans pitifully as he gets out of bed, taking care not to fall over. His fur is all damp and matted down in most places, and he had a horrible feeling on the inside, his stomach knotted up in dread and his mind barely acknowledging the fact that he is awake. Tails swung his leg over the side of the bed, and grudgingly rested his head on his hands. 

"Cosmo…" he started to say before he broke down emotionally, sobbing. He covered his face with both hands, tears trickling through the gaps between his fingers. After a few heart wrenching moments, he quickly composed himself, and shook his head. The pain was tearing at him inside, and he didn't feel like doing anything. With the death of Cosmo, he had just lost all motivation for everything that used to seem fun and interesting. After washing himself up and taking a quick shower, he sauntered downstairs right when the doorbell rang. 

"Coming…" Tails said weakly as he stumbled towards the door. The doorbell rang several more times in succession, until Tails grabbed the doorknob weakly, and pulled. As he swung the door wide open, he found none other than a blue colored hedgehog standing on his front step, waiting impatiently. 

"Heya there little buddy!" Sonic flashed his trademark grin and "thumbs up" sign, no trace of the previous bright morning sun behind him as clouds were starting to build up in the light gray sky. "How are you doing?" 

"Not too well, really" Tails mumbled, his eyes downcast, depressed. "Can we talk some other time?" 

"Look…." Sonic started, a frown tugging on the edges of his lips. "I know…" 

"No see, that's the problem," Tails suddenly snapped his head up and stated, annoyed, arms crossed with a frown on his face. "You don't know what it's like to lose someone close to you. Look…" 

Tails motioned outside with a wide, sweeping motion. 

"Just stop trying to make me feel better, alright? I – I just need to be alone for some time, alright?" Tails looked pointedly at Sonic, deliberately tapping one foot, impatient for a response. 

Sonic also frowned, concerned. "Alright, if it makes you feel better… But you can always talk to me if you need to, okay?" Sonic shrugged, gave Tails a pat on the shoulder, and sped past him, rushing into the open, leaving behind a long, blue streak. 

Tails sighed, and slammed the door shut. He didn't know how he could go on with his building depression. On top of that, it was all cloudy and looked as if it was going to rain soon. Today was not going to be a good day.

A few minutes later, and Tails was still wandering around the house, trying to think of something to do. Being as depressed as he was, he couldn't think of anything to do that would cheer him up or at least take his mind off of his misery.

"I guess I should probably eat some breakfast…" Tails muttered quietly to himself, though he didn't feel very hungry at all. Tails slowly ambled to the kitchen where he got out a bowl and milk and made a quick breakfast of cereal. As he was crunching on a bowl of frosted flakes, he thought unhappily to himself.

"Why Cosmo…? Just why did you have to die…?" Tails sighed, melancholy. He was only able to down a few scoops of cereal before he didn't feel like eating anymore. Tails got up, dumped the remaining contents into the trash can and sink, and sat back down on the kitchen table. He remained there, his head tilted and resting on one hand. The other hand was lazily toying with the tip of one of his tails.

"I mean I know you told us all that it was your 'destiny' and that you had to do this for your clan, but what about me? I know I should feel happy that you were able to fulfill your 'purpose' and also do something that would stop making you feel worthless…" Tails sighed sadly. "You know, I never thought you were worthless… Even if you didn't do anything when we were fighting… You did enough by being kind to everyone, especially me…"

Tails continued to think about Cosmo, a few tears dripping on the wooden table. "You shouldn't have felt like that Cosmo… You shouldn't have sacrificed yourself just because you finally wanted to show that you wanted to help us out instead of being a hindrance… I loved you the way you were, Cosmo… I loved you Cosmo…" Tails trailed off in thought. Sighing, he slowly got up, and started to pace around the room.

"And now you're gone, Cosmo… gone… gone forever…" Tails started to cry again, but immediately stopped and wiped the tears off of his face.

"I can't just sit here and mope all day, I should at least do SOMETHING. I can't spend the rest of my life doing nothing…" Tails decided after a while. He was just about to go to his workshop to fix up some loose ends of the Blue Typhoon when the doorbell rang again. 

"Who could that be now!" Tails wondered, annoyed. He opened the door and… 

"Hey Tails!" A pink hedgehog was standing outside, waving. 

"Hi Amy…" Tails sighed dejectedly; it WAS going to be a long day. 

Tails' Workshop  
12:11 PM 

Inside Tails' workshop, the clang of metal on metal and the sound of a drill being used echoed throughout the room. Tails was sitting on a stool, welding two pieces of metal together unsuccessfully. He had spent half an hour trying to get the thing to function correctly, but for some reason, it refused to work. Frustrated, Tails sighed, and threw the pieces of metal at the nearby wall. The clang resounded throughout the workshop as the metal pieces fell to the floor, bent from the impact.

He had been working on another of his inventions for the past few hours, but to no avail. Tails had decided that even though he really didn't feel like doing much, he had to at least do something to take his mind off all the depression he was dealing with. He was starting to create another airplane, one that could go superfast so he could keep up with Sonic whenever they went on an adventure. 

"If we ever do go on another adventure…" Tails muttered to himself. The airplane was far from finished. Tails had only completed the basic structure of the cockpit and body of the plane.

"I give up…." Tails mumbled. Retrieving the two pieces of metal he had flung at the wall earlier, Tails carefully set them on the ground near the plane. Then, he put his welding mask down on a nearby table, and headed inside to make lunch. Outside, the sky was still very cloudy, and it was starting to drizzle. Small streaks of rain hit the windows on Tail's house, creating a pattering sound as he ate a sandwich. 

"Man, it looks like there's going to be a big storm," Tails thought to himself between bites. "Hope it's not too bad. I HATE thunder and lightning…"

He had just finished his lunch when the doorbell rang again. Tails groaned, and slowly and painstakingly got up.

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming…" Tails stumbled to the door for the third time that day as if almost in a trance. He grabbed the doorknob and flung it wide open.

"Look, I don't want any of your sympa.." Tails started to say, and stopped. Standing in front of him was a dark reddish furred fox with two tails as well. The stranger was pretty tall and lean as well. His face and upper body was pretty cut up and scarred, and he looked as if he was some sort of fighter or something of the sort. 

"I wasn't exactly going to offer you any, but thanks for asking," the red fox said, his mouth twitched in a smirk. 

Tails scratched the back of his head in utter confusion. "Umm… I don't mean to be rude, but exactly who are you?" Tails asked the strange fox politely. Tails also noticed that the fox had two blades hanging from a sheath from his back, and some type of high-tech mechanical wristbands on both of his wrists. 

"That's not exactly important now," the red fox began, cocking his head to one side. 

"Then what do you want?" Tails crossed his arms and frowned. 

"I'm here to help". The red fox explained. 

Tails sighed, "Look if Sonic or Amy sent you here to help me…" Tails started to close the door. Swiftly, the red fox caught the door by sticking his foot in the open crack, and pushed it wide open. 

"No," The red fox sighed forlornly. "Not that kind of help." 

"Then what kind of help?" Tails asked, curious now. He raised one eyebrow. 

"Well…" The red fox motioned inside. "Could we…. you know…. talk inside? I mean it's pretty cold and wet out here." There was a blinding, white streak of light in the sky, and a thunderclap sounded as if to emphasize his point. The rain was now starting to pour, drenching the land in cold water. 

"Alright…." Tails sighed, "But I usually don't like strangers in my house." 

The red fox grinned lopsidedly. "Who said I was a stranger?" The red fox asked, looking around carefully when he entered the house. 

Tails' eyes widened considerably. 

Later…

About half an hour later, both Tails and the red fox were seated at kitchen table, the storm still going strong outside. Even though it was still like 1:00 in the afternoon, it looked as dark as midnight because of the black storm clouds covering what once was a calm, clear blue sky. The extremely loud crash of thunder every minute or so resounded in the house as the two foxes covered their ears. The pouring rain drummed on the roof of the house as well as the windows, making it hard to hear the other person speak.

The red fox sipped a mug filled with coffee, and had a blanket covering his body. Across from him, Tails was resting his head on one hand, looking tired and depressed. He had just finished introducing himself to the red fox… 

"Soo, your Mom and Dad are dead?" the red fox asked sadly. 

"Yeah, a long time ago though," Tails sighed. "I still miss them a lot, but not as much as I miss…" Tails started to cry, remembering Cosmo's death again. 

"Hey..." the red fox looked up."Don't cry, that's why I'm here to help" 

"Whaa-… What do you mean?" Tails began, looking confused. 

The red fox stood up and grinned. "I'm going to help bring back Cosmo."


	2. Chapter 2

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 2 

1:05 pm 

Currently, Tails and Raymond were impassively sitting at the oaken kitchen table inside Tails' home, the deafening thunderstorm still ongoing outside. So far, Tails had deduced from Raymond's quick synopsis about his background that Raymond happened to be his long-lost cousin. However, eight years ago when Tails was born, Eggman came and maliciously killed his and Raymond's parents. Eggman had previously found out that Raymond was gifted with the special ability to control fire, and was planning to use it somehow in his many schemes to defeat Sonic once and for all.

He then captured Raymond in his brand new spaceship, and seized him away, intending to bring Raymond to his base. However in space, some other hostile spaceships interfered and attacked Eggman, destroying his craft. Eggman managed to flee in his Egg-carrier, but Raymond plummeted to the planet below. He miraculously managed to survive, and has lived there ever since, until now when the last events of his life forced him to escape to Mobius and find Sonic and his friends, including Tails... 

"Huh?" Tails sharply glanced up, looking very surprised at Raymond's last comment…

"What do you mean you're going to help bring back Cosmo?" Tails asked questioningly, eyebrows arched in skepticism. Raymond on the other hand simply leaned back in his chair and heaved a sigh.

"Exactly what I said: that I'm going to bring her back to life!" He exclaimed, a smile etching itself onto his face as he casually grinned. "I would have thought you would be a BIT more excited…" He added in slight confusion.

Tails blinked, then shrugged. "Well yeah…" he replied doubtingly."But how? And how do you even know Cosmo?" 

Raymond gave another long sigh as his grin slowly disappeared. "Well... I know you're really confused now, but all will be explained in time..." 

"Huh?" Tails asked and blinked again, puzzled. "Okay…" Then, Tails started to gradually nod, as if taking in everything Raymond had told him so far. "So you're really going to help bring back Cosmo?" Tails asked again, his eyes lighting up in joy. 

Raymond smiled and nodded. "Yep!" 

Tails, overcome with emotion, suddenly ran over to Raymond and hugged him tightly. "YES! Thank you so much! You don't know how much this means to me!" A few tears trickled out of the corners of his eyes as soon as he realized he would be reunited with his love again. 

Raymond smiled warmly. "Actually, I do... more than you know..." He muttered under his breath so that Tails couldn't hear. 

Tails broke away, smiling happily. "So… I mean what do we need to do?" Tails said cheerfully, rejuvenated with energy and excitement. Despite the bleak weather outside, he couldn't contain his overflowing happiness. 

Raymond put one hand on his chin and thought for a moment. "Well, all we need is the Master Emerald..." He slowly pondered in deep thought, staring across the surface of the oaken table. 

Tails grinned from ear to ear. "Great! I know Knuckles would let us use it for this purpose!" Tails stood up in obvious anxiety and anticipation. "Let's go!" 

Raymond smiled. "Alright...I guess no better time than now…" He stood up as well, and started down the carpeted hallway to head out the door, but then stopped and turned around. 

"Aren't you coming Tails?" Raymond asked curiously, baffled when he didn't see Tails rush out the door ahead of him. 

Instead, Tails was at the bottom of the stairs, about to head up. He turned around and smiled. "Yeah, of course! I just need to do something first... It'll only take a moment!" 

Tails bounded up the stairs and into his room while Raymond shrugged and headed outside into the pouring rain, shutting the door closed behind him. There, Tails ran over to Cosmo's plant, which had already sprouted a lovely green stem and two small leaves. Tails stroked one of the leaves delicately with his index finger, resting his head on the other hand and smiling caringly. 

"Hey Cosmo! I don't know if you can hear me or not, but guess what? My cousin Raymond and I can bring you back to life! Isn't that great?" Tails laughed cheerfully, but then turned his expression to look thoughtful… 

"Well... there IS something I need to tell you though... you see, ever since you crashed in that field when we first met you, I've been starting to have these strange feelings towards you. And they've grown ever since through all the adventures we've been through..." Tails started to think about all the good times they had together when fighting the Meterex. The flowers seemed to shake a little bit as if they were listening intently to Tails' confession. 

"I think... no I KNOW that I loved you while we were on our quest to defeat the Meterex. But you see, I was too shy to admit that to you. I didn't think that you would love me back.. But now I know that the feelings were mutual! I know because you sacrificed your life to save mine! And... I also saw you trying to kiss me before you passed away..." Tails stopped, a few tears falling onto the soil of the plant as they glistened in the dim light of the room. 

"But now, since you're coming back, I promise that I won't be shy with my feelings anymore. I'll spend every moment with you, showing you how much I love you! It won't be long until we're reunited again! See ya Cosmo!" Tails bent over and lightly kissed the top of the flower. Then, he left the room, still crying slightly, but with a happy and determined expression on his face. 

Angel Island 

Tails and Raymond were in the X-tornade, navigating through the dangerous storm that was violently brewing. Lighting flashes and the pouring rain made it hard to steer, but being the expert pilot that Tails was, it wasn't much of a big deal… 

"Besides..." Tails thought. "Didn't Cosmo give up her life to protect us all without thinking twice about her own safety?" 

Tails turned to look at Raymond, who was slouching down in his chair. He seemed to be deep in thought, toying with the necklace while muttering under his breath, lost in a trance it seemed. Tails waited a few seconds before he cleared his throat politely to catch Raymond's attention. 

"Um… what exactly are you doing, Raymond?" Tails asked him inquisitively. Startled, Raymond suddenly sat up straight, and rubbed his eyes, yawning.

"Sorry, just thinking about stuff…" Raymond explained foggily.

"Oh…" Tails muttered He paused to bank the X-Tornado to the left, swerving through the dark clouds and falling rain. "Care to enlighten me?" He wondered, turning to Raymond inquiringly once he was satisfied they were heading the right way.

"Yeah, don't worry like I said I'd explain everything soon…" Raymond grinned in response, nonchalantly peering out the window.

"Oh…" Tails replied thoughtfully. "Sorry if I'm intruding or anything on anything personal…"

"Nah, it's okay…" Raymond smiled and assured Tails. Meanwhile, Angel Island loomed up in the distance through the fog.

Noticing it, Tails again turned to talk to Raymond. "We're here, Raymond," Tails stated, informing Raymond. "Angel Island is up ahead…" 

Raymond leaned over in his seat, peering out of the window again. "Well, I can't see through this fog, but if you say so..." 

Tails guided the plane down to the ground of Angel Island. As the fog of the storm cleared, Tails could see the Master Emerald and Knuckles sleeping out in the open. He managed to land the plane on the edge of the surrounding forest, and shut off the engine, spluttering to a stop. Tails then slid open the cockpit, and he and Raymond jumped out into the pouring rain, immediately drenched by huge globes of water falling from the sky. 

While the two of them began their trek to the Master Emerald through the muddy ground, Raymond was the first to speak. "So, I'm guessing that's Knuckles, right?" He pointed at the red echidna on the top of the Master Emerald alter. 

"Yep," Tails answered, and ran over to Knuckles and shook him gently. "Hey Knuckles, wake up..." 

"Huh?" Knuckles groggily opened his eyes and slowly got up. Then he shook his head and yawned. "Oh it's you… Hey Tails... who's your friend?" Knuckles pointed, indicating towards Raymond. 

"Oh..." Tails introduced Raymond. "This is my cousin, Raymond." 

Knuckles and Raymond shook hands. "I didn't know you had a cousin Tails..." Knuckles noticed. 

"Well…" Tails scratched the back of his head. "Neither did I until today... he kinda just came out of nowhere this afternoon… but...hey wait a second! How do you sleep out in this storm?" Tails asked in bewilderment, already soaked to the bone and freezing cold.

"Huh?" Knuckles looked up into the dark sky, pouring rain dousing his face and dreadlocks. "Oh this?" Knuckles laughed. "Come on, it's only a light shower, don't be such a sissy!"

KABOOM! Thunder sounded throughout the valley. 

Tails rolled his eyes and Raymond snickered.

"Someone might have slipped and hit their head a bit too hard coming down the steps of the alter…" Raymond casually muttered, smirking. Fortunately, Knuckles or Tails didn't hear, so Raymond sighed and used his jacket to shield his head from the torrential rain.

"So what brings you guys here?" Knuckles asked the two foxes. Tails was about to reply when Raymond started to head to the Master Emerald, diamond in hand. 

"You guys coming? Tails?" Raymond asked the two nonchalantly. 

"Oh yeah!" Tails ran over to where Raymond was standing. "Of course! So how are we going to do this?" 

Meanwhile, Knuckles stood off to the side, looking confused. "Umm, guys? What exactly are we trying to do?" He asked in utter confusion. 

Tails turned to Knuckles and grinned. "Raymond says that he's going to bring back Cosmo! Isn't that great?" 

Knuckles looked doubtful. "Wait, but isn't she dead?..." 

"Not with your help she won't be..." Raymond cut in. "Here Tails, hold this!" Raymond tossed the diamond over to Tails, who deftly caught it with one hand. 

"Got it!' Tails brought the diamond close to his face so that he could inspect it a bit closer. It didn't seem out of the ordinary by looks, but somehow, it seemed to drain a bit of energy out of him... 

Raymond motioned for Tails to stand on top of the Master Emerald, while Knuckles was still looking very skeptical, arms crossed. 

"I don't think this is going to work..." Knuckles began. 

Tails stood in the center of the Emerald, and held the diamond above his head. "Of course it's going to work Knuckles! It has to!"

Knuckles just laughed. "You really believe this guy? Cosmo is DEAD Tails, face it!"

Angrily, Tails lashed out. "Yeah? Well that's a lot coming from you, 'Mr. Gullible'!"

"Hey!" Knuckles clenched his fists and growled. "I'd like to see you come down here and say that again, kiddo!"

Nearby, Raymond rolled his eyes and sighed. "Shut up guys, none of you are helping." He turned to face Knuckles head on. "If you don't believe me, then fine. Go back to sleep or something and stop bothering us…"

Knuckles, now enraged, yelled out. "How about YOU shut up!" He swung one fist at Raymond, who leaned backwards, Knuckles' fist passing by harmlessly.

"Ooh… you missed!" Raymond taunted as Knuckles growled again.

"Wise guy, huh? Think you're tough, don't you!" Knuckles swung again, only to meet air. Raymond expertly leapt out of the way, snickering.

"Can't touch this!" Raymond leered. He dodged and weaved around and Knuckles ran all over the place in the rain, punching and swinging his fists wildly. Meanwhile, Tails was still standing on top of the Master Emerald.

"Please guys! Just stop fighting already!" Tails pleaded with them as they continued their battle. Raymond, in the middle of ducking another punch, turned up to look at him.

"Hey don't look at me! I'm not doing anything!" Raymond said innocently as Knuckles swung again.

Tails sighed. "Come on guys… seriously, stop…" He turned in circles, trying to follow the battle as it was going on around the Master Emerald Alter.

Raymond nodded. "You wanna stop wasting your energy now Knuckles?"

"Rrrrr…" Knuckles growled. "Fine! But just because I have better things to do than mess with someone like you…"

"Eh..." Raymond shrugged. "Have it your way…" Knuckles sauntered off, arms crossed, in a dark mood, while Raymond ran over to the Master Emerald. Tails looked down at him questioningly.

"What am I supposed to do? I mean how is this going to work?" Tails asked Raymond curiously. In return, Raymond shrugged.

"Well, honestly I KNOW it's supposed to work, but how to exactly do it, I'm not so sure…" Raymond trailed off in thought. Tails sighed.

"You mean you really don't know if it's going to work?" Tails asked sadly.

"No no I didn't say that!" Raymond grinned. "I KNOW it's SUPPOSED to work, but I just need to figure out how I'm going to make it happen…"

"You sure put a lot of thought into this…" Knuckles called out from across the field. Tails and Raymond rolled their eyes.

"Want to come try, oh smart one?" Raymond asked challengingly. Knuckles in response shook his head, arms still crossed.

"I TOLD you guys it's not going to work!" Knuckles answered defiantly.

Raymond sighed, then turned back up to look at Tails. "Here, maybe if you hold it, and wave it above your head, then something will happen…"

Knuckles snickered bad-naturedly. "Yeah, and then jump up and down and spin around ten times while closing your eyes and patting the top of your head… not to mention clucking like a chicken…"

"Haha, you're hilarious Knuckles…" Raymond retorted sarcastically. Tails on the other hand scratched his head. "Didn't you do something like that back in Marmolin or whatever…?"

Knuckles growled. "Hey the guy told me I was going to do something stupid! I HAD to do that, okay?"

Tails sighed. "Sure… whatever floats your boat, Knux…"

Raymond appeared to be taken aback. "I didn't know you were a sarcastic fellow…"

"Sorry," Tails apologized and sighed out loud, his breath escaping into the air as a translucent vapor. "I've just been having a rough past few days…"

Raymond nodded. "You don't have to be sorry. I understand…" He looked over his shoulder back at Knuckles who was still standing a ways off, arms STILL crossed. "Well…" Raymond sighed. "I hate to admit it, but it looks like we're going to need your help, Knuckles…"

"Really? Did I just hear you say that?" Knuckles wondered out loud, feigning surprise. Raymond meanwhile just sighed.

"Alright, I'm sorry for doing whatever the hell I did, I'm not doing it for myself anymore, it's for Tails…" Raymond sincerely apologized.

"Hmm…" Knuckles nodded, then slowly walked back over to Raymond and grinned. "We're good now?" Knuckles held out a hand to shake.

Raymond grinned back. "Yeah, we're good." The two of them shook hands and patted each other on the shoulder.

"Nice fighting skills by the way," Raymond complemented. "I was lucky to have barely dodged all of them…"

"Hey thanks, you're not too bad yourself, bro…" Knuckles replied in return. Tails watched over the two, satisfied.

"Well, let's do this then!" Tails cheered enthusiastically, happy that all three of them could work together and maybe solve the mystery of how to get the thing to work…

KABOOM!

Raymond winced. "I hate thunder… just putting that out there…" He turned to Knuckles. Tails told me you have this chant or whatever, mind if you try using it?

Knuckles shrugged. "Well, I'll give it a try. Here goes nothing…"

He raised both of his hands, and recited his ritual chant. Overhead, lightning flashed through the sky and thunder boomed across the plains. Tails suddenly felt vulnerable, as he was standing on top of the Master Emerald which was placed on top of an alter, easily the tallest thing around for quiet some distance. He was about to ask Raymond if he could get off, when right at that moment, Knuckles finished his chant, and the Master Emerald suddenly glowed and pulsated.

Raymond half-grinned cautiously. "Well, that's a good sign… I think…" Beside him, Knuckles shrugged again. "Well, what do we do n-"

He was suddenly cut off by a bright light, and it enveloped the entire area, covering Tails, Raymond, and Knuckles… 

Overhead, the storm still raged on, as if foreshadowing the beginning of a bloody and inevitable conflict…


	3. Chapter 3

Mobius: The Final Stand  
Ch. 3 

Angel Island:  
1:38 pm 

Outside on Angel Island, the weather is harsh and cold as the pouring rain creates a whooshing sound on the land around Tails, Raymond, and Knuckles. Violent lightning strikes pierce the dark night sky, followed by loud booms of thunder. Tails is standing on the Master Emerald, clutching a black cross-shaped diamond as Knuckles stands nearby. Raymond is standing next to Knuckles, watching the whole procedure, arms crossed, a stoic-like expression clouding his face. A bright light envelops the trio, and suddenly, the black diamond starts glowing dark blue, and electricity starts to spark around it. 

"Ahhh!" Tails screamed as his hand is engulfed in agony, feeling as if it were burning right off. Yet somehow, he couldn't let go of the diamond! It was as if it was completely stuck to his hand! 

Suddenly, a large electric bolt flew up towards the sky, as a blinding white light envelops everyone around the alter. Back on Mobius, Sonic comes to a skidding halt during one of his runs as he sees the bolt flash up into the black sky. 

"Oh no," Sonic mused worriedly. "This doesn't look good at all! I'll bet Eggman is behind this!"  
Sonic quickly changes direction, and races off into the distance towards Angel Island. 

(Back on Angel Island) 

All noise stops, as the storm suddenly vanishes. As the bright light fades away, everyone can see that the sky has turned a clear light blue, and the green grass sways in the gentle, summer wind. Around Tails, Raymond, and Knuckles, birds start chirping again, and the fresh scent of flowers wafts about. As Tails opens his eyes, shrugging off his dizziness, he glances at his hand and sees the black diamond broken, now cracked in half. As the kitsune then looks around, he sees Knuckles, looking very confusedly around, and Raymond, with a smug grin on his face. Then, as Tails glances next to him, his breath is suddenly stuck in this throat. There, lying peacefully next to him on the master emerald, curled up, is Cosmo. THE Cosmo that not but just three days ago, gave up her life when the fate of the universe depended upon it. Tails, so overcome with monumental emotion building up inside of him, couldn't think of anything else to do, so he suddenly ran over to her, knelt down, and hugged her tightly, burying his muzzle in her shoulder as tears come pouring down his face. 

As Tails is hugging Cosmo, she dazedly, slowly opens her eyes, and gazes softly into the aqua blue eyes of Tails. 

"Wher- Where… Am I?" Cosmo says slowly as Tails releases his grip on her. 

Tails smiles gently, in a state of disbelief, yet slowly acknowledging that his loved one had indeed come back. "You're here, Cosmo…." Tails slowly articulated. "Right here, next to me. And I promise that I won't lose you again." He leaned over, heart pounding rapidly, and kisses her right on the lips as his trance finally breaks. 

Cosmo, dumbfounded, tenses at first, but then gradually relaxes, and begins to kiss Tails back as

well. 

As they break away, gazing lovingly, upon each other, Cosmo smiles. "So I'm alive? How?" 

In response, Tails looks over at Raymond, picks up Cosmo bridal style, and jumps down to the ground. Tails carefully sets Cosmo down on her feet, and walks over to the reddish-furred fox. 

"Thank you so much." Tails says as he hugs Raymond as well. Tails sniffs as he goes on. "T-Thank you for giving her a second chance at life again." 

Raymond smiles too, and pats Tails on the back. "It was an honor to do so for someone so heroic." Then suddenly, Raymond looks away, as if sorrowfully. "That black diamond is cracked, isn't it?" He mutters quietly. 

Tails looked back at the diamond in his hand, and nodded. He hands it the Raymond, who accepts it with caution. Raymond suddenly looks down at his feet, tears forming. "I knew it was going to happen. I mean, I had hoped- , but no, I knew it all along." 

Tails looks confused, but then turns back to Cosmo, who's talking avidly to a dumbfounded Knuckles. 

"I knew all that pizza last night wasn't good for me," Knuckles said, still unbelieving that Cosmo had in fact come back to life. 

Cosmo giggles, then leans over and hugs Tails, who's standing next to her. "No silly, I'm alive!" Cosmo then leans back and sighs, "But, but, I mean how did all this happen? I should still be dead, but somehow, I'm right here!" 

Tails grins "Well…." He tried searching for an explanation, but when finding none, he simply shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to call it a miracle, don't we?" Tails then looks as if he's trying to figure something out. "Raymond had this interesting diamond that helped bring you back, but all of this is very confusing, even to me. I don't even know much about him, or where he came from, or where he got that diamond –" Tails stopped as Cosmo abruptly cut him off. 

"Well, however he did it, I'm back..." Cosmo leaned towards Tails, as the two kiss again, holding each other in a secure embrace. It seemed as if nothing else could go wrong, but of course as the two were about to find out, they were very wrong. 

Suddenly, the master emerald started to shine again, this time, turning black. Raymond suddenly looked up, and started to growl, unsheathing both of his twin swords. One of them is an emerald green color, while the other is pearly white. Both looked vicious and deadly, being double-edged. A blinding light filled the air again, as another creature appeared on top of the master emerald; this time though, a lot taller and bigger. 

A black Minotaur with long, sharp horns, and blood red eyes jumped down next to Raymond, and pulled out a large, dark gray battle sword, at least four feet in length. The Minotaur spoke in a booming voice, looking Raymond in the eye: "Ah, Raymond…. We meet again…" It spat contemptuously.

Raymond gritted his teeth. "Ready to die again?" He challenged, preparing for battle.

The Minotaur just laughed. "Well well…. We'll see about that!" 

The Minotaur struck downwards, as Raymond dove out of the way. The battle sword clove the air a millisecond ago where he was standing, and cut into the ground, creating a huge gash. Raymond stood up, and cautiously began circling the Minotaur, feinting and slashing his swords in the air between them. 

"You're gonna pay again for what you did!" Raymond yelled furiously as he swung both of his swords at the Minotaur's chest. The Minotaur leaned back, as the sword passed harmlessly by, making a humming sound. As Raymond's back was exposed due to his sideways momentum, the Minotaur reared his left foot up, and kicked Raymond in his right side, causing him to tumble backwards to the ground. Raymond then yelled in pain as the Minotaur swung his sword, gashing Raymond's left thigh. As blood spilled out, the Minotaur grabbed Raymond by the neck, and pulled him up, choking him. 

The Minotaur spoke: "You can't beat me! You're an idiot to oppose us! I hope you're ready to die for your foolish actions." The Minotaur tightened his grip on Raymond. 

"I'll kill all of you! Every single one until I've had my revenge!" Raymond shouted as he struggled to get loose. 

The Minotaur laughed scornfully. "On a different note, I'm surprised though at your choice, however. Why bring back HER to life, when you could have used it to br-." 

Raymond stopped struggling, looked the Minotaur dead in the eye, and shouted: "SHUT UP! It's-." Raymond collapsed to the ground limply as the Minotaur let him go, flinging him to the ground. "It's... what she would have wanted..." A lone tear trickled down Raymond's face. Suddenly, he got up slowly, bit by bit, until he was standing again, teeth bared at the Minotaur. "I've long since been ready to die! I hope you're prepared!" Raymond charged at the Minotaur as the two met blades, creating a ringing sound. 

They circled around each other, parrying and slashing at each other, both equally matched. The Minotaur rose his battle sword up over his head again, and struck downwards at Raymond, who nimbly rolled out of the way while the blade clove the grass where he was standing. Getting up quickly, Raymond lashed out with one sword, but was knocked away by a wave of the Minotaur's battle sword. As Raymond furiously tried to get around the Minotaur to his exposed back or at least find some opening in his defenses, the Minotaur in return keep striking out at Raymond, nearly catching his leg at one point when Raymond almost appeared to trip. As Raymond got up again, panting, the Minotaur grinned evilly.

"Tired, Raymond?" The Minotaur leered. Raymond growled, and stood up straight, shaking a fist at the Minotaur.

"I'm just getting started!" Raymond retaliated, and conjectured up a ball of flame, which he threw at the Minotaur's head. The Minotaur ducked the flame, but failed to see Raymond's knee racing towards him…

"Oof!" The Minotaur grunted as Raymond's knee made contact with the side of the Minotaur's head. As the Minotaur screamed, enraged, Knuckles suddenly came out of nowhere, and pounded the Minotaur on the back of the head, deftly jumping over him as he toppled to the ground.

"Thought you might need some help…" Knuckles grinned at Raymond, who grinned back.

"Yeah, you could say that…" The two of them split in different directions as the Minotaur's sword came slashing out above them. 50 yards away, Tails and Cosmo were watching, concerned for the safety of both Knuckles and Raymond. Cosmo was holding on tightly to Tails, who in return was trying to go help the two.

"I have to help them, Cosmo! They're in danger!" Tails desperately tried to leave, but to no avail. Cosmo was gripping on to him tightly, nestling her head in his fur on his shoulder. A few tears trailed down her face into Tails' body, who turned around and looked at Cosmo, surprised when he felt the wet tears.

"Why are you crying, Cosmo?" Tails asked her caringly. He stopped trying to get away, and instead tenderly kissed the top of Cosmo's head. "What's wrong?"

Cosmo sniffed. "Please… please don't go… I don't want you to get hurt, or even worse…" She looked up at him, tears running down her face. "Remember how hard it was for you when I died?"

"Yeah…" Tails slowly nodded. "I remember…" He sighed sadly as Cosmo tearfully continued.

"Then please, for my sake, will you stay here? I can't bear to lose you Tails…" She cried and hugged him again. Tails rested his head on her head and tried to comfort Cosmo by wrapping an arm around her.

"Don't worry… I won't go Cosmo… I'll stay right here with you…" Tails said soothingly as Cosmo managed to smile through her tears and giggle.

"Sorry if I'm being too demanding… I just don't want you to risk losing your life…" Cosmo explained as Tails shushed her knowingly.

"It's okay, Cosmo. I guess I wouldn't have liked it if you wanted to go out and put yourself in danger too…" Tails smiled at her, and Cosmo smiled back. "T-Thanks…" She whispered, hugging him tightly.

Meanwhile, Raymond ran around the Minotaur as he swung again and again. Knuckles on the other hand punched the Minotaur's exposed back while it was busy with Raymond. And when the Minotaur tried to attack Knuckles, he was attacked by Raymond, who cut him a few times with his swords. But Raymond and Knuckles weren't fairing very well either. Knuckles had a couple of big bruises on his chest and face from being swatted at and kicked. Raymond had cuts and gashes running up and down his sides and legs. Both of them were incredibly tired, while the Minotaur didn't seem to be very much fazed at all. As Knuckles dodged another blow, and Raymond lashed out at the Minotaur's legs, both of them panted heavily.

"W….Where's….. th…that d..darn.. Sonic when you need him!" Knuckles shouted, barely avoiding being beheaded. On the other side of the Minotaur, Raymond shrugged. "Where's that lucky strike of lightning that hits your enemy when you need it?"

KABOOM! Rain continued to fall around the group. The ground was incredibly muddy, turning the trio's fighting into what looked like an awkward game of "Spin around the Rosie". Raymond dodged another blow, sliding through the deep mud.

"I swear I've eaten so much mud now I'm feeling quite full thank you…" Raymond retorted as the Minotaur lashed out at him, clipping him upside the chin. Raymond fell backwards into the mud, as Knuckles tried to lash out at the Minotaur again. Except this time, there was no Raymond to distract the Minotaur. The Minotaur quickly turned around, and punched Knuckles in the stomach so hard he was sent flying halfway across the field. When he landed, he made no movement of getting up.

Satisfied, the Minotaur then turned to Raymond, who had already gotten up.

"One down, one more to go…" The Minotaur laughed scornfully. In response, Raymond wordlessly spat at the ground near the Minotaur's feet.

"Just shut up and start fighting again, will you already?" Raymond jumped out of the way for the umpteenth time as the Minotaur's battle sword once again clove the air where he was just standing milliseconds ago.

Raymond didn't know how long the entire battle had been going on, five minutes? Ten minutes? He knew that he was weakening inside, and couldn't hold up any longer, so Raymond decided to try something risky. Instead of jumping out of the way Raymond knocked aside the Minotaur's last blow with his own two swords. As the impact jarred Raymond, and made a ringing noise, he ignored the pain, and yelled out loud, and charging towards the Minotaur under his overreached sword. Raymond ran directly beside him, slashing through the Minotaur next to him as Raymond ran past. As both of them slowed to a halt and each looked opposite directions, suddenly, the Minotaur fell to the ground, dead. Raymond turned around, and started to laugh in relief, but then looked down at his own side, which had a huge gash in it. Raymond then collapsed to the ground as well. 

Tails, Cosmo, and Knuckles ran over to Raymond, seeing that he was nearing death from loss of blood. Somehow, the Minotaur managed to stab Raymond in the side while it was killed. 

Raymond's eyes fluttered open and looked at the three standing around him, his vision starting to darken around the edges. The trio seemed blurry to him, slowly fading away as Raymond tried to focus his vision. He gasped and coughed between fading breaths as he choked out to his friends. "I..I… I'm.. Sor…Sorr..Sorry… ittt…ha..had…..ttt.…to….end..likk…..like…..this…" Raymond spluttered softly, clinging on to the last bit of life he had within him. 

Tails started to cry again, bending over so his face was right above Raymond's. "Don't leave me…us. You can't die after all you've done for me. Please, don't die". He tearfully said, tears dripping down to the earth, mingling with the raindrops. 

Raymond looked Tails in the eye, and smiled sadly. "St..stay…strong…wi…with….C-Cosmo..and don't…b..be..sad.." 

"No… No…. trust me you're going to be alright…" Tails tried to smile optimistically, but Raymond shushed him.

Raymond tried to clear his throat in order to talk more coherently. "No, I'm sorry, it's too late." Raymond smiled sadly. "But it's been a good life, and I'm leaving without any regrets." He confessed with satisfaction, turning to Cosmo.

"Promise me that you won't be sad and that you'll live a happy, long life together with Tails…"

Cosmo gulped and nodded. "Of course!" She started to cry as well. "Please…. You can't die…"

Raymond then finally turned to Knuckles, who had his arms crossed, head bowed respectfully. "You're a really great fighter! Keep it up, and maybe you'll one day come close to beating me!" Raymond smirked competitively.

Knuckles managed a small laugh. "It's been nice knowing you bro. Take care… Raymond…"

Raymond nodded, and smiled sadly. "I will…I will… goodbye…"

Finally, Raymond collapsed as he stopped breathing. Around the area, all noise seemed to cease, and there was a still quietness.


	4. Chapter 4

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 4 

Angel Island  
1:53 pm 

It is a beautiful day outside on Angel Island. A Clear blue sky hangs overhead, soft green grass sways in the gentle summer wind… yet three certain people don't take notice of it. Tails, Cosmo, and Knuckles are all gathered around an unmoving Raymond. Tails and Cosmo are sobbing, while Knuckles is just standing there stoically. They had barely even met him, yet somehow, they all felt attached to him... as if he had been a big part of their lives. 

"W-Why does someone just have to die?" Tails sputtered, crying at the sight of his dead friend. Next to him, Cosmo hugged him and tried her best to comfort him.

"I'm sure he knew what he was doing… Please don't cry or be sad Tails… he would have wanted us to be happy together instead…" Cosmo rested her head on Tails' shoulder, eyes shut.

Tails sniffed. "Yeah, I know… it's just it's so UNFAIR that someone always has to die…" He wiped the tears off of his face.

"Shhh…." Cosmo held Tails close to her, tightly. Meanwhile, Knuckles sighed. "I think he knew that he was going to have to give up his life in order to bring back Cosmo. He knew he was going to die, and did so valiantly." Knuckles bowed his head respectfully, eyes closed, hands in prayer.

Tails then sighed. "Well… then I hope he's happy now in a better place… He brought back Cosmo, and knowingly sacrificed his own life to do so…" Tails slowly knelt down to the ground besides an unmoving Raymond. "T-Thanks… R-Raymond…"

Cosmo knelt down next to Tails and put an arm around his shoulder, leaning into him. "Yes… thank you… even though I never met you, I-I think that was so brave and kind of you to do what you did… I h-hope you're okay now in a better place…"

Tails and Cosmo hugged each other, bawling. Knuckles stood over the two with a grim expression on his face.

"Raymond must have known what he was doing; standing around here isn't going to help. Let's just go now…" Tails and Cosmo were about to stand up, when suddenly, Cosmo's hand started to glow. Immediately, the grass Raymond was lying on started to grow, and cover his wounds at an alarming rate. It intertwined over his gashed body, covering parts of his body as if the grass were tying him down to the earth. Amazingly, Raymond's wounds started to heal and disappear; stitching over themselves and mending into an unbroken, smooth layer of skin. As the grass started to heal Raymond, he slowly woke up, and looked at an amazed Cosmo, who in return looked at her own hand as if to check if it was really hers. 

"How… How did I just do that?" Cosmo asked herself incredulously. 

Tails and Knuckles stood off to one side and just remained there; completely unbelieving of the event that was taking place right before their eyes. Just a few seconds ago, Raymond was almost dead, yet somehow, Cosmo managed to heal him and restore him back to life. 

Raymond managed a small smile, and stood up as Tails, Cosmo, and Knuckles started to back off cautiously. He looked at his own body, making sure that this wasn't some trick or illusion, then started to grin victoriously. 

"I-I'm alive.." Raymond managed to whisper… "I-I've defeated him… AGAIN.. and survived. Though it wouldn't have happened had it not been for my friends." Raymond paused long enough to look at everyone around him, all of whom were still awestruck at the sight of his revival. "Thanks to Cosmo, somehow, she managed to use some sort of magic powers to heal me back to life. Maybe she's…" Here, Raymond trailed off. "..No it couldn't be. Though could it? It's possible, and maybe even true.. I thought we were the only ones left, but I guess not." Raymond mumbled to himself, leaving the others all very confused. Sensing that, Raymond started to explain. 

"Apparently, it seems as if Cosmo has the power to control other plants and also can heal others." Raymond said clearly. "Where I come from, we thought that we were the only people with "special powers" left, but I guess not." Raymond's hand was enveloped in a ball of flame as if to prove his explanation. "As you know, I can control fire." Raymond then proceeded to burn out the flame. 

At that moment, the trance of the miracle had finally broken and Tails and Cosmo rushed up to Raymond, enveloping him in a big hug.

"Y-you're a-alive!" Tails cried out, tears of joy leaking down his face. Raymond nodded and smiled.

"Well, thanks to Cosmo… I guess it wasn't my time to go yet…" Raymond smirked. The trio broke away, all smiling at each other.

Then, Cosmo walked up to Raymond and approached him. "No thank YOU for doing what you did… for bringing me back to life…" She smiled sweetly.

Raymond shrugged. "Nah it's nothing… I—"

Suddenly he was cut off by a loud screech, then the impact of metal on the ground resounded throughout the area, followed by more in succession. Startled, the four of them looked around to figure out where the noise was coming from.

Then out of the blue, a giant robot appeared out of nowhere, crashing through the trees, knocking them over as if they were only toothpicks. A very familiar figure was laughing maniacally, riding next to the robot in what appeared to be a floating device…

"Santa Claus!" Raymond shouted. Beside him, Knuckles groaned and proceeded to do a facepalm.

"No, sorry, that's Eggman." Knuckles explained as a matter-of-factly.

"Oh…" Raymond trailed off. "Well that's okay, I've already killed a couple of people, so I don't exactly think I'd be on the 'good' list anymore…"

Knuckles smirked. "Well yeah…" However, he was interrupted when Eggman started speaking in his loud, booming voice.

"Hohoho…!" Eggman laughed sinisterly. "Well well, what do we have here?" Eggman grinned widely. "Cosmo? How are you back alive?" Eggman asked in surprise. Down on the ground, Tails clenched one fist and waved in the air.

"That's none of your business, Eggman! Just go away and stop bothering us!" Tails shouted in rage. Eggman just merely laughed.

"Well that's no matter. And who's your friend?" Eggman indicated towards Raymond, who was toying with his mechanical wristbands.

"Oh… hey!" Raymond waved and grinned. "My name is Raym-" Raymond was suddenly cut off when the machine struck downwards with its gigantic fist, pounding a crater in the ground. Tails immediately grabbed Cosmo and started to fly away with her while Knuckles and Raymond leapt the other direction. Eggman growled and scratched the top of his head, shouting at the robot.

"No no no! Go for that one!" Eggman pointed at Knuckles, who was leaning nonchalantly on the base of the Master Emerald alter. "Or no, I mean go for them!" Eggman pointed at Tails and Cosmo, who were a ways off. "Argh! Just attack him!" Eggman yelled in frustration and pointed at Raymond, who was standing right in front of the robot.

The robot lifted one foot, and brought it down at full force on Raymond, who merely just rolled out of the way, and raised his mechanical wristbands. Three needle-like bullets shot out of it, hitting the robot in the leg. Unfortunately, they didn't pierce it, but instead just bounced right off.

"Oh… crap…." Was all Raymond had time to say before he was whacked upside the head as the robot lashed out and sent him flying back several yards. The ground was still very muddy from the previous downpour, so Raymond slipped all the way back till he came to a stop next to Knuckles.

"Having fun playing in the mud?" Knuckles asked Raymond, smirking, arms crossed. Raymond shook his head and spat.

"Nah, I'm done messing around now. Let's annihilate Eggman!" Both of them leapt out of hiding, and charged at the robot.

"E-101! Fire missiles now!" Eggman ordered, pointing at the incoming Knuckles. E-101 pointed its fist at Knuckles, which suddenly transformed into a giant rocket launcher. Several missiles flew out in succession, all aiming at Knuckles, when suddenly…

WHACK! Raymond came out nowhere, and sliced through all the missiles with his twin swords as they all fell to the earth, cut in half. He landed deftly on the ground, and looked back up over his shoulder, grinning.

"Man, I've always wanted to do that…" He jumped out of the way as E-101's foot came smashing down on the earth again, leaving another large-sized crater. Meanwhile, Knuckles landed on E-101's shoulder, and started to pound away at its neck. As he kept on his barrage of punches, the metal armor dented and gave away to reveal a bunch of wires and circuits. Yelling, Knuckles was about to rip them out and disable E-101 when suddenly it reached out and flicked Knuckles off of its neck, sending him flying towards the earth. He landed on his face in the mud next to a panting Raymond.

"Having fun, Knuckles?" Raymond smirked. Knuckles just growled.

"Alright, this is getting pretty annoying now! I've got a plan…" The two of them started to speak quickly to each other in hushed whispers while E-101 reloaded its guns and Eggman merely just watched on, laughing.

"Come on now gentlemen, the battle's just begun!" Eggman laughed maniacally again, waiting for another opportunity to attack the duo again. Finally, he spotted Raymond rushing out of the forest towards E-101's back, obviously trying to pull off a 'sneak' attack.

Eggman growled, and pointed at Raymond, who was trying his best to conceal himself while running quite quickly towards E-101's unprotected backside. "E-101! Target in sight! Attack! Fire all guns!"

E-101 quickly turned around, and pointed both arms at Raymond, who looked up in surprise.

"Well…. I can tell that's gonna hurt one way or another…" At least fifty rockets, missiles, and lasers shot out of E-101 and spiraled towards Raymond. He tried jumping out of the way, but one of the lasers nicked him on the thigh, drawing blood.

"AHH!" Raymond yelled as he went down, clutching his leg in pain. Eggman grinned evilly, and was about to order E-101 to finish him off, when he heard a noise behind him. Startled, Eggman turned around to see Knuckles charge at E-101, one of Raymond's mechanical wristbands in hand. Knuckles ran swiftly across the field, closing the distance quickly, teeth bared, eyes wide open.

"Attack!" Eggman shouted. E-101 turned around, and fired a missile at Knuckles. It spun lazily around and around as time seemed to now move in slow motion. Knuckles, noticing it, jumped forward, arms outstretched as it impacted the ground behind him, creating an explosion. The shockwave from the missile blast sent Knuckles propelling forwards, sliding through the mud on his stomach. He closed the gap between himself and E-101, and turned on his back as he slid underneath E-101 between his legs. Knuckles yelled out, and pointed Raymond's mechanical wristband at E-101's face from upside down, pulling the trigger several times. Needles shot out of it, racing up to hit E-101 in its unprotected neck where Knuckles had previously pulled away the armor. As Knuckles kept sliding for 20 more yards, finally coming to a stop, E-101 slowly bent over, and toppled to the ground, destroyed. Knuckles sighed and panted heavily, dropping the wristband to the ground in exhaustion. Raymond raced over to Knuckles, shouting in victory.

"Yeah! I can't believe it worked! That was so epic!" Raymond grinned, and Knuckles grinned back.

"Yeah… we did it…" Eggman meanwhile grabbed his head in defeat.

"I'll be back next time, don't you forget!" He cursed as he sped away on his Eggcarrier. Meanwhile, Tails and Cosmo, rushed up to Raymond and Knuckles.

"Wow! That was pretty cool!" Tails complemented. Then, he down at the ground again, eyes downcast. "Sorry guys for not being able to help… again… I just had to make sure Cosmo was okay and safe…"

Knuckles grinned. "Don't worry Tails, we understand!" Raymond grinned as well. "Even though your help would have been greatly appreciated!" The group of them laughed.

At that exact moment, Sonic raced up to them, flashing a grin. 

"Hey guys!" Sonic said cheerfully. "Hey Tails, Knuckles!" Sonic greeted them, then gestured towards Raymond. Who's your new friend?" 

"Oh, this is Raymond, my cousin," Tails introduced Raymond as Sonic and Raymond shook hands. 

Then, Sonic looked next to Tails, and his eyes widened. "Um, Tails? Is that who I think it is?" 

Tails smiled "Yep, somehow, Raymond has managed to bring Cosmo back to life. Yet…" here Tails stopped. "I still don't understand really much of what's going on, so I was hoping you could explain everything to me." Tails asked Raymond. 

Raymond nodded solemnly. "Alright, I guess it's time to explain everything. Let's go over somewhere where we can gather everybody together." 

At Cream's house  
2:06 pm 

Sonic, Tails, Cosmo, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and Rouge all sat around in the living room, making themselves comfortable, as Raymond stood in the center. As always, Amy tried to sit near Sonic, who was edging away. Tails and Cosmo both snuggled up on the sofa, and Knuckles was trying to sit as far as possible away from Rouge, who was giving him frequent looks. Cream was sitting next to Cosmo of the couch, talking avidly with her. Raymond cleared his throat, and began to talk. 

"As you guys know, the events of the past two days have been very confusing for all of you." Raymond continued. "Yet, I hope they'll all make perfect sense after I give a brief recount of my own story, which takes place last week. You see, it was all when…"


	5. Chapter 5

MOBIUS: THE FINAL STAND CH. 5 

Time: 8 years ago (since the end of Ch. 4)

Location: City of Newark, on a distant planet… 

Images…. Pain…. Light…

Slowly and painfully, Raymond opened his eyes, taking in the bright, afternoon sunlight. He was lying sprawled on his back, dust swirling around the air above him. Beneath him, he felt the rocky ground, full of gravel and sharp pebbles rubbing into his sensitive fur. Raymond tried to open his eyes a little bit wider; his vision blurrily making out the walls of a crater that he seemed to have created himself from falling a long ways above. Images and memories were running through his eight year old mind, but none of them was making any sense. He had remembered something about another planet... and then being captured… and then falling from the sky. Then, Raymond remembered somehow landing here and surviving, but unfortunately, the impact had jarred most of his memory. The reddish furred fox looked down at his mangled body, too much in pain to even move or cry out for help. As he dozed off into unconsciousness, he hoped someone would come rescue him before it was too late…. Suddenly, he heard someone call his name over and over again. 

"Raymond…..Raymond….Raymond….." The voice dimly echoed over and over again in his shallow mind. 

"Ugghh.." Raymond slowly woke up, groaning tiredly, coming back into reality. Taking in his surroundings, he quickly realized he was back in his house, having woken up from a dream about his mysterious appearance on this planet eight years ago. Next to his bed, a pretty, pink fox was standing over him, smirking. 

"Oh good morning, Emily," Raymond cheerfully greeted, noticing her as groggily as he got up, smiling at his girlfriend. 

Emily beamed at him. "Good morning, Raymond! Hope you're ready for another day at playing 'hero' again!" She teased, poking fun at the fact that Raymond was currently serving in the Newark Army; his duty being protecting the city from enemy attacks. Emily on the other hand was studying at a local college as an undergraduate student. Both of them lived together alone by themselves in a small, cozy townhouse, and have been for most of their entire lives…

Emily calmly smiled. "I've never seen you get up so late before though..." She giggled cheerfully. 

"Wha.." Raymond rubbed his eyes and rolled over tiredly, glancing at the clock next to him, trying to make out the hazy, digital numbers. 

"Oh no! It's already eight! I'm going to be late for the meeting!" Raymond exclaimed as he hurriedly jumped out of bed. He stumbled towards the bathroom and ran over to the sink, starting to furiously brush his teeth as Emily stood by the doorway, wearing an amused grin.

"Care to explain why you're using my toothbrush?" Emily giggled, covering her mouth with one hand, trying her best to hide her smile. Raymond, confused, pulled the toothbrush out of his mouth, and stared at its pink color.

Raymond did a facepalm while Emily continued to laugh. "Sorry, I'm just really out of it this morning…" Raymond apologized, blushing embarrassedly.

"No worries! You're pretty funny though…" Emily giggled again. Raymond shrugged and smirked.

"I'm glad you think so," He replied dryly. After changing into a casual attire and eating a quick breakfast, Raymond started to leave for the door and gave Emily a quick peck on the cheek. 

"I'll see ya later, Emily! I won't take long! Sorry that I had to hurry up and rush like this!" Raymond said as he rushed outside. Emily gave him a big hug, and kissed him, laughing: "It's okay Raymond, I understand. Give all of them my regards!" 

As he made ready to go, Raymond hesitated and stopped by the door. "I'm reeeally sorry Emily, I-" He started to apologize. 

Emily shushed him. "Just go Raymond! I understand, it's okay." 

Raymond ran out the door yelling. "I'll make it up to you, I promise!" He said as Emily waved goodbye to him, sighing. She slowly shut the door closed, watching Raymond's car pull out from the driveway and into the road, receding into the distance. As Emily turned to go inside, she thought to herself… 

"It's been exactly eight years since he's mysteriously landed here. I still remember meeting him for the first time, seeing him half-dead and carrying him to my house to recover and heal... and he's lived with me ever since." Emily sighed thoughtfully. 

"I don't know how to tell him though….. I mean… I've always admired and liked him, but I don't know to put it. Should I just tell him when he comes back? I know that he likes me too, but I'm still afraid that if I ask, he'll think I'm too forward..." Emily shook her head and went back inside, closing the door, still wondering about what to do. 

Meanwhile, Raymond hopped in his car and casually shoved the keys into the ignition. 

"Come on…..Come on…" Raymond impatiently drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as the engine sputtered out. "ARRGGH! Alright, that's it!" Raymond growled and lit up a ball of fire in his hands, thrusting it into the keyhole. The engine suddenly started up, and Raymond proceeded to back the car out of the garage and onto the street. 

Raymond sped across the suburban road, making an exit onto the main highway as cars all around him honked impatiently. He managed to maneuver along the busy highway and avoid incoming cars while inputting the address into his GPS system.

"Uhh… 979 Northside street… okay, there we go." Raymond muttered to himself as he raced along the road. "Dang it, I'm gonna be late… again!" 

As all the hurry and drama from the morning receded while Raymond was driving, his thoughts wandered around. He thought back about Emily. Last night, he had planned out everything perfectly for this day just for her, and he had forgotten all about this meeting. It wasn't even all that important, his sister, Jessica, had called some sort of a family meeting. It was their job, the five of them, to protect the city with their special powers. And so far, they had done a pretty good job so far in the past few years. But now that he thought about it, it was pretty odd how nothing had been going on for a while… Raymond's thoughts kept wandering around and around, until it came back to Emily. 

"I've always wanted to tell her how much I like her, but I don't know why I can't..." Raymond started to think to himself. "I mean it's obvious that she cares about me, since she's always worried and concerned whenever I'm out somewhere battling, and she takes care of me all the time when I'm home... I mean she does so much for me, that I just really want to make it all up for her, to show her that I appreciate everything about her..." 

Raymond pulled out a ring from his pocket. It was stunningly beautiful; a solid gold band with a large pink jewel on the top. It was also adorned by sapphires and rubies, all of them sparkling in the light. Raymond looked out the window as the scenery rushed by, the rays from the sunrise lightly reflecting off of his crooked bangs. Newark was a mainly industrial city, though there were some places where you could enjoy seeing trees and fields of light green grass rush by. Today really was a nice day, as the sun shone nicely upon the landscape and a light breeze blew by. Too bad that he had forgotten all about the meeting... 

Finally, ten minutes later, Raymond pulled up into what looked like an abandoned warehouse. Broken cars and other scrap metal lay around everywhere, all rusted. Dust was filling the air around Raymond, and the sounds of hammer on metal and power saws were in the distance. 

"Crap, I'm late! Arghh.. Hope I can just slip in without them noticing.." Raymond shoved open the car door, got out, and slammed it closed. He then ran up the dusty front steps into the front door of the warehouse and yanked it open. The room was pitch black, as the light from outside filtered into what appeared to be an empty room, filled with many chairs around a big, rectangular table. Overhead, Raymond noticed a large projector that was turned off as he silently glided into the room. 

"Uhh… okaayy.. I guess I'm early then." Raymond checked his watch, which read 8:37 AM. "The meeting was supposed to start at 8:30, so why is nobody here?" Raymond asked in surprise. Then, as if in response to his question, the lights turned off; enveloping Raymond in a pitch-black darkness. 

"Uhh… okaayyy.. this is creepy now." Raymond whispered to himself, tensing. Suddenly, the lights turned back on, and several foxes were seated where just a moment before there had been nobody. They were all facing Raymond, each with amused looks on their faces. 

"Huh? Am I missing something funny?" Raymond asked, slightly annoyed. The closest one, a female, electric blue fox smiled and laughed lightly. "Yeah, we just love playing pranks on you! Don't look at me though, it was Garry's idea." Raymond looked over at a brown colored fox, who was laughing to himself. 

"Not my fault you were late, like usual." Garry added indifferently.

Raymond smirked in retaliation. "You know it's really funny coming from you, who we all know to be a bit 'slow' in the head." He replied smartly. 

Garry jumped up and sand flew from his hands, creating a whirlpool around Raymond. Raymond shielded himself, and then let loose a large ball of flame which hit Garry in the stomach. They both jumped on top of each other, punching and hitting, while the blue fox rolled her eyes, and pried the two apart, zapping them with bolts of electricity as if she were accustomed to this. 

"Ah, come on Jessica, I had him this time," Garry sighed pitifully. 

"Yeah, because we all know I own you every other time," Raymond leered. 

The two started to push each other again, until Jessica picked both of them up, hit their heads against each other, and unceremoniously flung them onto the ground. 

"Maybe you two should learn to get along with each other for once," a white fox stood nearby, watching the whole event with a suppressed amount of amusement. The last animal, a black fox, lay back in his seat, arms folded behind his head, clearly apathetic of what was going on. 

"Come on guys," Jessica let out a long sigh. "We need to get along with each other." She looked at Raymond and Garry, who were sitting next to each other with looks of pure innocence on their faces. 

"We wouldn't do anything," Raymond started. 

"Yeah, after all, we're brothers anyways. We just have a habit of disagreeing with each other." Garry finished. 

The other three foxes rolled their eyes, and Jessica continued. "Like I was saying, the last battle against the neighboring territories proved that we need to work on upgrading our city securities. They could have really done some damage if we hadn't been pre-warned of their invasion." 

Garry dozed off, yawning. "Who needs it? We all know what a good army we have, and nobody will try to mess with us. Besides, even if they do, I'll just hit them harder next time so they won't come back for more." Garry stood up on the table triumphantly, fists poised in battle-ready stance. 

"Come on guys, I agree with Jessica." The white fox, Luke, complained. "We can't keep relying on ourselves to beat everybody that comes down on us. We need to admit that there are stronger opponents out there, and we should at least just in case provide some sort of security around the city so we'll be able to know if anyone's infiltrated the place." 

Raymond spoke up: "Look, every time that someone's claimed they would attack and beat us, we've always been able to own them. Let's just admit it, we five are the best fighters anyone's ever seen. Garry and Raymond gave each other high-fives, grinning. 

Malcolm, the black fox snorted. "You guys are so arrogant it's not even funny." 

Raymond just laughed and waved it off with a wave of his hand. "Well, not to be prideful or anything, but with our kind of powers, we are pretty unbeatable." 

Garry and Raymond gave each other another high-five as Malcolm sighed disgustedly. "You guys are so stupid." 

Luke spoke up. "Well, not to say that we haven't been 'amazing' at protecting Newark for the past few years from every enemy possible, but I think that it'll be pretty nice to have some sort of backup in case something goes wrong." 

Jessica just sighed. "Well, anyways, I'm going to assign you guys to a nightly city patrol. Garry takes the first watch, then Malcolm, then Raymond, then Luke." 

"What about you?" Garry asked curiously. 

"I'm going to talk with the Newark mayor about my idea anyways. Better to be safe than sorry I say." Jessica added, signaling the end of the brief meeting. 

As the five said goodbye and left, little did they know that one, simple little idea could play a huge part in their entire lives.


	6. Chapter 6

MOBIUS: THE FINAL STAND Ch. 6 

Newark, 8:44 am 

As the five of them were leaving their brief meeting, Raymond hurriedly ran over to Jessica, who was just about to get into her car and leave. He was meaning to talk to her about his feelings towards Emily, since he knew it would be too difficult to try to do something himself. And, Jessica was the only one of them he could trust to keep a secret like this. Except maybe Luke... But Jessica would understand better since she was a girl… 

"Hey, Jessica! Wait up a minute!" Raymond called out to her as he caught up, trying to catch his sister's attention. 

Jessica, hearing Raymond, turned around in surprise. "Yeah, is there anything you need?" She asked curiously, standing back up and shutting the car door closed. 

Raymond paused for a minute as he slowed to a stop, trying to figure out how he was going to tell her. "Well, uh, it depends... Can you keep a secret?" 

Jessica thought hard, and crossed her arms. "Uh-oh, this doesn't sound good. Remember the last time you said that?" She warned forebodingly, readying for any possible bad news. 

Raymond on the other hand grinned as he thought back to when he had stolen Garry's car when he was younger, and had driven it off of a highway into a ditch. He tried to remember what Jessica's face had looked like at the time he had told her the news after crawling out from the wreckage. 

"Well, this is different…" Raymond started to say, a trace of blush appearing on his cheeks. "You see… I- uh, I…" Raymond stuttered, trying to spit the words out of his mouth.

"Uh-oh… You what?" Jessica hesitantly asked, her arms still crossed.

"Well…" Raymond started to say again. "I was going to ask you… uh… if... you could help… er..."

"Help you with what?" Jessica asked worriedly, tensing.

"I mean… I… uh… sorta… l-like… Emily… yeah…" Raymond managed to stutter the words out. 

"Ooh…" Jessica knowingly nodded her head up and down a few times, glad that it wasn't something bad Raymond had done. Then, Jessica started to smirk once she digested the information. "Like? or LIKE like?" She teasingly asked, obviously intent on embarrassing Raymond. 

Raymond blushed a deep red, even though it didn't show much since he already had dark red fur. "Uhh... Like like?" He finally confessed, blushing even harder. "Here, I was going to give this to her." Raymond pulled out the ring as Jessica gasped, covering her mouth in shock. 

Jessica smiled warmly. "Aww... isn't it so cute? My little brother's finally growing up... and he's such a sweetheart!" 

Raymond sighed happily, glad that he had finally found the courage to tell someone how he felt. "Yeah, she means a lot to me..." he smiled, thinking about Emily.

"Aww... it's so cute! In my opinion, you two really make a good match!"

Raymond blushed harder. "Well, I REALLY want to give this to her, but I don't know how I should do it properly…."

Jessica grinned wittily. "Well I'm sure you'll think of something Raymond… Trust me, you don't need my help!"

"But," Raymond countered. "I don't know how to give this to her… Should I go out somewhere special? Should I…"

Jessica laughed good-naturedly. "Just trust yourself Raymond, and you'll be alright!" 

"Alright, if you say so… I should be going back to her, promise you won't tell anyone?" Raymond hurriedly requested. 

Jessica grinned. "Don't worry, I won't." She then looked thoughtfully at Raymond. "Hey, I don't want to disturb any plans you might be having, but do you want to join me when I go to the mayor?" 

Raymond shrugged. "Sure, I'll ask Emily. See ya!" 

"See ya later!" Jessica called out as she got back into her car and drove off. The two of them parted, and left in their own directions... 

Newark, 9:17 am 

Raymond had just returned home from his meeting to find Emily waiting for him at the front door. 

"Hey, Raymond!" Emily exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace. "So, how did it go?" 

Raymond laughed. "Well, you know how it always goes with family meetings... Actually we just talked a bit about installing a city security system that would make the city safer in the event of a surprise attack." 

"Well, that sounds interesting…" Emily said thoughtfully as she motioned for Raymond to come in. "So… I mean, what do you want to do today?" She put her hands on her hips and smirked teasingly. 

"Well…uhh.." Raymond started, and scratched behind his head. "I was actually planning to go with Jessica to visit Mathim to talk about the idea. I just it's kind of weird; I mean we haven't ever needed one before, why the sudden urge to install one now?" 

"Well, I'm sure it's just that Jessica is probably just worried about everyone, including you." Emily stated caringly. 

"Yeah, I mean it's not like I'm really against it, but uh it just seems a bit funny to me how all of a sudden I feel like we're being threatened or something. Maybe there IS something going on that I don't know about yet…." Raymond rubbed his chin in deep thought. 

Emily just laughed. "You're putting too much thought into this, Raymond. You don't need to worry about everything; you do enough by protecting the city." 

Raymond laughed along as well. "Yeah, you're right. It's probably just that I'm still pretty tired and everything…." Inwardly, he thought 

"Then why on earth do I have a bad feeling about everything? I shouldn't be... I mean there's no reason to." 

CENTRAL NEWARK: 9:42 am 

Raymond and Emily were outside in the city, enjoying the morning. Currently, they were at a local coffee shop, sitting at a table outside and drinking hot chocolate as it was fairly chilly outside. People walked past the cafe, their clothes flapping in the early morning breeze. The chatter from the surrounding people and the noise from the traffic from the nearby street made it a bit hard to hear the other person when they spoke.

"You know," Raymond sipped from his cup and gestured with one finger, waving it in small circles. "If only we lived in a place far, far away from everyone out by the sea in our own house… Wouldn't that be so nice?"

Emily put her coffee cup down and giggled. "Being anywhere with you is 'nice', Raymond!"

Raymond laughed along with her as well, and continued. "Well what I meant is that there wouldn't be any people to distract us, or any pressure from college or war. Which reminds me by the way, how's your studying going along?"

"Oh," Emily looked upwards at the azure blue sky in thought, her light-green eyes reflecting in the sunshine. "There's really nothing going on much. But I do have a bit of studying for this certain exam actually… Do you mind helping me actually?"

Raymond nodded enthusiastically. "Sure! I—" He was abruptly interrupted as his phone rang, its high-pitched ringtone sounding off. As Raymond apologized and took it out and started to talk to the person on the other side, Emily rested her head in one hand and stared at Raymond dreamily.

"Maybe I should tell him now…?" She mentally shook her head. "No, no I'll wait for the right moment… But I can't keep on putting it off!"

As Raymond ended his brief conversation with whoever was on the other side of the phone, he noticed Emily staring at him, unknowingly smiling absentmindedly.

"Umm… You okay?" Raymond kindly asked as Emily immediately tried to compose herself and hide the fact that she was looking at him, blushing a deep shade of crimson.

"Yeah yeah I'm fine!" She exclaimed hurriedly. "I… err… was just looking at that over there!" She pointed behind him as Raymond turned around in his chair to see what Emily was indicating towards.

"I don't understand, what were you looking at?" He asked in curiosity.

"Umm… never mind, it's gone now…" Emily muttered, hoping Raymond wouldn't be suspicious.

"Oh.. okay.." Raymond trailed off, but then spoke up again: "I just called Jessica, and we're planning to meet Mathim at 10:15 today." He informed Emily, wondering what her response would be. 

"Ok..." Emily took a few moments to digest the information Raymond had presented to her. "Do you mind if I tag along?" She asked pleadingly. 

"No, not at all!" Raymond smiled warmly. "I was actually just about to ask you that myself!" 

"Alright, thanks!" Emily said excitedly. "Though, I probably won't understand anything when you guys start using 'technical' terms". 

Raymond grinned. "Hey, what do you mean you can't understand me? I don't recall ever using big words before." 

Emily laughed. "Sorry, just messing with ya," she winked. As the two drank the last of their drinks, Raymond's phone rang. 

"Sorry, hang on a minute." Raymond apologized and clicked 'talk'. There was a pause on the other end, before Raymond heard someone speak. 

"Raymond, are you there?" 

"Garry? What is it?" Raymond jumped a bit in surprise, concerned. 

Garry paused. "I know it sounds kind of weird, but I've been having a bad feeling ever since Jessica brought up the idea of a city wide security system. I mean we haven't even really talked about the logistics and everything, she just brought the idea up. And yet, I still feel like something bad is going to happen." 

Raymond nodded curiously. "Yeah… I feel the same way too. I'm going with her to visit the mayor, so I'll talk to her then. Meanwhile, can you visit Luke and Malcolm and see what they're up to? See if they share the same feeling." 

"Ok. Will do." Garry hung up, leaving Raymond very confused. 

Emily leaned over towards Raymond with a look of concern on her face. "What is it?" She asked, obviously sensing something was wrong. 

"Oh," Raymond blinked and recovered his composure quickly. "It was just Garry. Apparently, he feels funny about the idea too." Raymond stood up as Emily followed suit. "Whatever, let's just get going and I'll try and figure everything out then." 

As Raymond led the way to his car, followed by Emily, she in turn added: "Well… whatever it is, promise you won't hurt yourself!" 

Raymond smiled. "Of course not, how could I refuse?" They both hopped in the car, and drove off towards the center of Newark. 

CENTRAL NEWARK: 10:02 am 

A red fox was leaning on a brick wall of a tall office building, crossing his arms in thought. Raymond glanced at his watch. 10:02. He was actually early, 13 minutes even. He looked up at the tall building in front of him, marveling at its size. The central office in the middle of Newark stood at least 30 stories high, making it easily the tallest building around for miles and miles. It was covered with tinted glass windows that ran down the four sides of it. Beside him, Emily was staring at him, though trying to hide that obvious gesture whenever Raymond looked back at her. 

Raymond sighed as he thought about Emily… "I've always wanted to tell her about how I feel. I mean, we've been friends since forever, but I'm still too shy to express my feelings. I'm always too busy and caught up in battling enemies that I really haven't had time to just spend time with her. Man, I'm really lame…" However, his thoughts were interrupted by a sharp jolt of electricity arcing out of nowhere. 

"OUCH!" Raymond yelped in pain. "I HATE it when you do that!" He looked over to see Jessica, who had appeared from the other side of the building, grinning slyly next to him. 

"Sorry, I can't hear you over how shockingly electrifying I am!" Jessica joked good-humoredly as she hugged Emily. "Emily! It's been a long time since I've seen you!" She greeted warmly. 

Emily returned the hug. "Same goes for you too, Jessica!" 

Jessica then turned to Raymond and winked. "Idday Uoyay Ivegay Erhay Hetay Ingray?" 

(Did you give her the ring yet?) 

Raymond just stood there, still singed from the shock and blinked. "Onay.. Utbay Iay Maay Lanningpay Otay Aterlay." 

(No.. but I am planning to later.) 

Emily looked confused. "Uh, guys?" 

"Oh, uh, sorry about that." Raymond apologized. "I'm uhh, or actually Jessica's teaching me a new language that I thought would be useful to learn." 

"Really?" Emily looked interested. "What's it called?" 

Raymond desperately thought hard. "Uhh, Iglatinpay" 

"Oh.." Emily looked lost. 

Raymond laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, we should probably go in now." 

He strode inside the building, with Jessica and Emily following behind. Right when they entered, they were immediately greeted by the crowd of workers and secretaries that milled around the reception area, mostly chatting with each other. Small tables and chairs were lying randomly around the area, and the smell of coffee wafted about. Off to the side, a desk was situated so that it blocked the entrance to further down the interior of the building… 

A bulldog was at the desk, checking other office workers and employees in. "Names please?" He asked in a monotone but commanding and official voice. 

Raymond cleared his throat. "Uh, Raymond and Jessica Prolle." Raymond glanced at Emily. "Oh yeah, and Emily Prolle as well." 

Emily blushed and held Raymond's hands behind his back. 

The bulldog nodded thoughtfully, and entered the names onto his computer. "Ok, I see you have an appointment with the mayor, is that right?" 

The three of them nodded as the bulldog continued. "Well, 30th floor, third room on the left. He should be up there right now. Have a nice day…" 

Raymond, Emily, and Jessica strolled into the elevators past the front desk, and pushed the button to take them all the way up. As they were standing there, Raymond turned and asked Jessica. "So, about this whole 'security system' idea. Uh, well what gave you the sudden idea that we needed it?" 

Jessica quickly answered back. "It wasn't my idea, it was Malcolm's…" She stated in order to erase any confusion beforehand. 

Raymond on the other hand grew even more surprised. "Malcolm? What does he have to do with all this?" He asked intriguingly. 

"He was the one who suggested that a little security wouldn't be a bad thing, right?" Jessica asked half-heartedly. The two of them had to stop talking as another cat got onto the elevator at the tenth floor. The four of them remained awkwardly silent until he left a few floors up. Raymond spoke up… 

"Well, uh, Garry and I are a bit suspicious of the whole thing, though we don't know why." Raymond responded. "Aren't you?" Raymond questioned. 

"No, not really," Jessica reflected. "Why would you be suspicious?" 

"Well uh, because we've never needed anything before, and now all of a sudden we need it? I mean it's not like I have a bad suspicion, I'm just curious." Raymond stated. 

"Well, you better ask Malcolm because I'm as confused as you are." Jessica replied as the elevator doors opened to reveal an array of cubicles and small office rooms. Employees were in them, working diligently over paperwork and on their computers, typing furiously. Here in the top floor, everything important about Newark was taken care of. From key databases to vital information about the city's wall security, everything was kept in files around the various computers that encompassed the whole floor.

Raymond, Jessica, and Emily all remained silent as they began walking down the main hallway that lay in front of them. Silently, they counted the rooms to their left, until at the third one, Raymond abruptly stopped and turned around to face the other two.

"Well… I guess this is where we start to figure everything out…" Raymond trailed off and the three of them headed inside the mayor's office, unaware of the conspiracy that was about to unfold right in front of their eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 7 

Mayor Mathim's Office: 10:12 am 

As the trio of foxes turned to enter the room, what they saw consequently surprised them. 

"Malcolm?" Raymond barged into the room just as his brother Malcolm was handing Mathim a stack of files. Jessica and Emily came rushing in a second afterwards upon hearing Raymond's outburst of surprise. 

Noticing his siblings and Emily enter the room, Malcolm merely glanced sideways out of the corners of his eyes with a strange look of annoyance on his face towards the trio. 

"Could you guys please not disturb us?" The black fox asked in contempt. "I'm in the process of sharing my plans with the mayor, and it's already complicated enough without you three annoying me." Malcolm stated with a snort of disgust, waving one hand indifferently towards them. He then turned back to the mayor, and apologized. "Sorry, as I was saying…" Malcolm started, ready to continue his explanation. 

Instead of standing by however, Raymond strode over and grabbed Malcolm by the shoulders. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Raymond shouted at Malcolm, surprised at the events that were unfolding before his eyes. 

Malcolm brushed Raymond off with another wave of his hand, and started to scowl. "What do I have to tell you guys? This is none of your business, so BACK OFF!" 

Malcolm shoved Raymond back into Jessica and scooped up the files on the mayor's desk with a gesture. With a quick apology to the mayor, Malcolm stalked outside and abruptly left, leaving the three foxes very confused at what was going on. Emily hugged Raymond tightly, concerned for his safety, as he looked over his shoulder back at the fleeting figure of Malcolm. 

Mathim, a grizzled, old lion, sighed and placed his hand on his forehead. In front of his head lay his laptop and various stacks of files and documents. "What can I do for you three?" He asked tiredly. 

Raymond started to speak, but Jessica cut him off, trying to prevent her brother from doing any more harm. "We just were going to discuss a matter of importance with you, but it looks like someone's beaten us to the punch…" 

"Yeah, what was Malcolm doing here anyways?" Raymond piped up. 

Mathim stood up and started to pace back and forth behind his desk. "Well, as I understand, you five want to build us a so called 'security' system, am I right?" Mathim stopped and looked deeply at the three, rubbing his chin with one hand. 

"Malcolm was just here, explaining the whole concept to me. Apparently, what he wants is a network system with access to the entire city. That means including top-secret stuff like battle plans, and other unspecified information. He claims that by doing so, in the event of an attack, Newark would be better equipped and organized to deal with such threats in order to minimize casualties. And I see no reason not to accept his plans." Mathim finished. 

Raymond and Jessica were quiet for a moment, processing all the information, until Emily spoke up. 

"Well, sir, I may not understand much about stuff involving fighting and war, but I think that that's not such a bad idea as well…" Emily looked at Raymond, who was still staring off into space. 

"Well," Raymond began. "I don't see a problem about the whole matter, but I'm still detecting something fishy about Malcolm's behavior." Jessica rolled her eyes. 

"Look Raymond," Jessica started, "You know Malcolm, he's always been quite a uh.. secretive fellow, but that doesn't mean he's up to something. Can't always trust your instincts, because sometimes they make you believe stuff that may not be true." 

Raymond remained quiet for a minute or two, toying with a pencil he had found on the ground. Finally, he stood up and sighed. "Alright, alright guys. Count me in." Raymond left the room, and headed back to the elevator. 

Mathim looked out towards the door. "If I were you, Jessica, I'd still keep an eye on both Raymond and Malcolm. I don't think the two of them are very fond of each other..." 

Jessica and Emily nodded, and slowly left the room heading after Raymond. 

Outside Central Newark Office  
10:19 am 

Raymond was chasing Malcolm, but in vain. Malcolm had long since disappeared into the crowd of animals around the sidewalks bordering Main Street. Usually around this time of day, Main Newark Central was always full of people going to work or shopping or the likes. Frustrated, he kicked a nearby pebble. It ricocheted off of a trash can, making a clanging sound, and then clattered to the sidewalk. Raymond sighed, and jammed his hands in his pocket. Meanwhile, Emily and Jessica caught up to Raymond, who was standing on the sidewalk, thinking. 

"Dang, Malcolm's always been tough to find if he doesn't want to. Though I'd say his special powers do help a bit." Raymond muttered to no one in particular. 

"Come on Raymond, I've never seen you act like this before," Jessica said. "We've always stuck together as siblings, so why break apart now?" 

"I've never seen Malcolm act so fishy before," Raymond countered. "I just want to know everything's that's going on." 

"Nothing's going on, Raymond," Jessica countered back. "It's just all up in your head.."

Raymond sighed again and looked down. He kicked at the ground beneath his feet, noticing his shoes were a bit scuffed. He needed to get new ones soon…

"I'm sure you'll find the answer soon, Raymond." Emily consoled. "Whatever it is you're looking for, I mean."

Raymond looked back up and smiled. "Thanks, Emily. Yeah, I'm probably just over-reacting. I think all the hot chocolate's getting to my head." 

Emily grinned. "Well, I hope not. You'll make me feel guilty then. I thought you liked having hot chocolate with me every morning." Emily faked a sad face. 

Raymond started to stutter. "Uh..no…no… I d…didn't mean it like that. I do enjoy it, I was just joking." 

Emily hugged Raymond. "I'm just kidding silly! Though you always are cute when you act like that!" She nestled her face into the side of Raymond's muzzle, smiling contentedly. 

Raymond blushed. "Uhh….okaay…. I'm fully embarrassed now." 

Emily giggled and released Raymond. "Then I've achieved my mission!" Jessica was standing patiently by, with an amused grin on her face. 

"I never knew it was possible to make Raymond blush," Jessica smiled. "You two really DO bring out the best in each other, don't ya!" 

Raymond and Emily both blushed. "Umm... right… so we were talking about…?" Raymond stuttered, trying to desperately change the subject. Everyone laughed, and started to walk back to their cars at the Central Newark Office. 

Meanwhile: Somewhere on the outskirts of Newark  
10:28 am 

Malcolm was standing in a dark alleyway with a hood over his head, clutching a pile of papers in his hands. Several people walked by outside, not giving him much notice. Impatiently and nervously, Malcolm checked the time on his watch.

"Dammit! It's 10:30 already! Where the hell is he?" Malcolm tried his best not to shout so other people wouldn't take notice of him. Malcolm snorted, and crossed his arms until finally, a hooded figure walked up to Malcolm. 

The two of them nodded at each other. "So, you've talked to him I presume?" the figure boomed. 

"Yes... I did," Malcolm stated. 

"So, what are the news?" the figure questioned. 

"Well, he did accept, on the condition that we have alternating nightly patrols," Malcolm said. He handed the files over to the hooded figure. 

"Good.. Good.." The mysterious figure glanced over the papers with interest. He stopped, and looked up at Malcolm. "You didn't run into any, 'inconvenient' problems, I presume?" 

Malcolm looked disgusted. "Well you know actually that idiotic brother of mine tried to pry information out of me, but I managed to escape before he got any details. I just hope Mathim hasn't told him anything." 

The figure laughed. "All in good time, everything will work out. I doubt he'll be able to interfere with our plans. Now, the other one, the blue one… we might need to take her out. She might pose some problems, so it's best to get her out of the equation before she figures anything out yet…" 

Malcolm nodded. "I've already arranged for something. In the meanwhile, the other two…" 

"I doubt they'll be able to pose any threats either. The brown one's stupid, and the white one's gullible. They'll be easy to handle, trust me. Nothing can stop our brilliant scheme from taking place, and when it does, it'll be too late to stop it!" the figure laughed maniacally. 

Malcolm looked nervously from side to side. "I should be getting back soon, they'll be getting suspicious." 

Malcolm hurried off to leave, leaving the figure still standing in the alleyway. The figure turned around slowly, and began to lift up his hood. It fell off his face, revealing him to be a minotaur with blood red eyes and razor sharp horns. He lifted his dark gray battle sword from its sheath, and raised it up high, as if in mock victory. Around his neck was a necklace, from which hung a diamond. A black diamond in fact, shaped like a cross.


	8. Chapter 8

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 8  
2:01 pm 

Border of Newark: Malcolm and Luke's house  
About 4 hours since Garry's set off to look for Malcolm and Luke… 

A sand-colored car pulled up into a small, suburban house. Usually in Newark, people mainly lived in apartments or townhouses due to lack of space, but here on the borders of Newark, everything was spaced out nicely. There were many houses like this one with their own yard and garage dotted all over the land, but a certain brown colored fox was particularly interested in this one. This house happened to be the home of two other foxes, one colored black, and the other, white. Garry ran up the front porch stairs and hurriedly rang the doorbell. He'd been searching for the two everywhere, and finally decided to check if they were home. 

RING RING RING! 

On the other side of the door, Garry heard slow footsteps, and then the door opened to reveal a slim, white fox wearing jeans and a white t-shirt with an orange Fanta in his hands. Luke seemed surprised to see Garry at the door. 

"Oh hey Garry! Uh, wanna come inside?" Luke invited Garry in and swung the screen door wide open. Garry followed Luke inside to reveal a comfy living room with two couches and an oak wood table. There was a 90 inch flat screen TV in front of the table, with an array of video games and controllers. There was even a mini-refrigerator, packed with sodas and snacks. Garry helped himself to a Coke, and sat on one of the couches. 

"Nice, living space here," Garry mentioned lightly. "Now I understand why you stay at home a lot." 

Luke laughed. "Yeah, I don't really play much videogames though. That's more of Malcolm's style. I usually read or… I'm actually in the process of working on a story, did I ever mention about it to you?" 

Garry wasn't really paying attention. "Malcolm, you say…. Have you seen him around, lately? It doesn't look like he's at home." 

Luke nodded. "Yeah, He's kinda….missing.." 

"Whadya mean Malcolm's gone?" Garry asked. "Where'd he go to?" 

Luke shrugged. "I don't know, he could be anywhere. You know him, he likes keeping to himself a lot." 

Garry nodded thoughtfully. "Well, Raymond just gave me a phone call about an hour ago. He told me that he feels that Malcolm's behind something, so I should keep an eye on him… When's the last time you saw him anyways?" 

"I remember him right after the meeting at about 9, he came home in a hurry and ran up to his 'private' office. He was in there for an hour or so, then at 10, he comes running out the door with a bunch of files in his hand." Luke said. "That's the last time I saw him today.." 

"Malcolm….hmm…. He didn't tell you about anything?" Garry asked. 

"Nope, nothing." 

"Well, he should have mentioned something, I mean there has to be a way where we can find out what he's up to…" Garry said 

Luke thought carefully for a minute: "Well…. What about his office? It might have some important information…" 

Garry jumped up in excitement. "Of course! You're right! There must be SOMETHING, maybe a clue…or-or a file that'll give us some insight into what he could possibly be up to!"

Luke shrugged. "Well it doesn't hurt to give it a try…"

Garry set his Coke down on a nearby table as the two of them made their way through the hallway to the stairwell. He bounded up the stairs, and looked at the array of rooms that greeted him.

"Malcolm's office is over there, Garry." Luke pointed at the room to the far left. They pushed open the door, and were instantly met with papers and files lying messily around the entire room. It was almost bare, a lone window providing sunlight to the otherwise dark room. To the right of them was a large, oaken desk, Malcolm's laptop on top of it. There also was a space for keeping files, but it looked as if most of it had been taken when Malcolm had disappeared.

"Hmm…." Luke casually knelt down and picked up a couple of the papers lying scattered on the floor. "None of these look like they might have what we want…"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure Malcolm took them all…" Garry answered, trailing off. He made his way to the desk, sitting in Malcolm's chair. He swiveled to face the laptop, and powered it on.

PASSWORD: _?

"Uhhh…." Garry typed in a few letters.

PASSWORD: _MALCOLM PROLLE_

ACCESS DENIED

"Luke? Can you come over here for a minute?" Garry called over to Luke, who was currently still examining the papers on the floor.

"Yeah, what is it?" Luke discarded the pieces of paper and walked over to where Garry was sitting by the desk. He peered over Garry's shoulder at the laptop screen.

"Any idea what the password might be?" Garry asked casually.

Luke shook his head. "Nah… I don't know… did you try 'Malcolm'?"

Garry nodded. "Yep, already did that one..."

Luke shrugged. "I don't know then… try… try 'Raymond'."

PASSWORD: _RAYMOND_

ACCESS GRANTED

Garry turned to look at Luke with a strange expression on his face. Luke shrugged again.

"Hey, don't look at me!"

"Whatever… we're in." Garry responded and turned back to face the computer screen.

A bunch of icons appeared on the laptop desktop as Garry examined them all.

"Here, try that one," Luke leaned over Garry's shoulder and pointed at the icon called "Databases/File"

Garry moved the mouse over it and double clicked. A window popped up, and three more icons appeared on it.

NEWARK DATABASE

MALCOLM'S FILES

TOP SECRET FILES

Garry smirked and double clicked on "TOP SECRET FILES". Immediately, another window popped up, and this time random lines of text appeared on the screen. Garry scrolled down as far as he could go, but none of the lines made any sense.

COD4ENWRK2101SY1STM

SH3UT4DW6NTR9MNT

VRSH3CK8SCRTY6SYS4TM

…..

"Can you understand any of this?" Garry turned to face Luke, who wore a confused expression on his face.

"Noo… but I think it's some sort of coding. Here look, it's saved as a ".cmd" file, which means it's basically a command for something…"

"Well, let's check the other files-"

Garry was cut off by a loud THONK! 

Garry and Luke froze for a minute. 

"Uhh, what was that?" Luke asked as Garry looked up from the laptop screen to investigate. He noticed right away that the window was open, and that something was on the floor. Something shaped like a cylinder that was flashing colors rather quickly. 

"GET DOWN! RUN!" was Garry had time to say before the grenade exploded. 

KABOOM! 

Raymond, Jessica, and Emily were in Raymond's car driving when they felt a tremor beneath their feet and spotted a trail of smoke in the distance. 

"Uh-oh, that doesn't look good…" Raymond mused. 

Raymond hit the brakes, swerved, and sped off in the direction of the smoke… 

Outskirts of Newark 

Malcolm was standing on the stone city walls which encircled Newark. The wind blew past his face, blowing back his hood as he surveyed the wreckage through his binoculars, snapping them shut. He grinned sinisterly: 

"Sorry bros, it's nothing personal…" 

He jumped 20 feet onto the ground, and landed quietly, crouching. He stood up, brushed himself off, and slung his backpack over one shoulder, walking stealthily outside the Main City Gate. 

"2 down, 2 more to go. And I think I have the perfect plan to get rid of those two."


	9. Chapter 9

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 9  
Malcolm and Luke's house 2:08 pm 

The entire house was a wreck; it was just a pile of burning wood with smoke trailing off of it. The crackling of fire resounded through the area, as some caught on to the nearby trees and plants, which were scorched as well. Police cars were sitting nearby, and a Fire truck was spraying water all over the debris, but in vain. An ambulance truck was parked aside the house, though it looked like there were no survivors. A beat-up, red Acura rolled in the front of the house, and Raymond ran out the door to view the wreckage. 

"Oh….myy….god…" Raymond breathed as he slammed the door shut and looked at what used to be Malcolm and Luke's house. He turned to a police officer nearby. "Was there anyone inside?" 

The police office motioned Raymond to step away. "Sir, I'll have to ask you to please clear the area. We are still trying to figure out all the details of the incident, and we don't want you interfering with our work or getting yourself hurt." 

Raymond pulled out a badge from his pocket. "Do you know who I am? I'm Captain Raymond  
Prolle from the Newark Army, and I'll ask YOU to kindly step away from the area." Raymond brushed past the dumbfounded officer and ran up to the house, Emily following close behind.

Jessica had just gotten out of the car when she spotted something out of the corner of her eyes. She turned to see a dark figure running off suspiciously from out behind the burnt house.

"Hey!" Jessica started to chase after the mysterious figure, who she thought could have been the one who had done this.

Meanwhile, Raymond and Emily had just arrived at the ambulance where someone was being carried on a stretcher. 

"Oh no, Luke…." Raymond whispered as he saw Luke's beat up body being carried away. There were multiple burn marks all over him, and bandages covering most of his head. Luke slowly opened his eyes and smiled. 

"Don't worry Raymond, I'll be alright…" Luke sighed and fell back unconscious as medical assistants loaded him onto the truck and drove him away.

"Wait, where's Garry?" Raymond panicked. He ran back towards the burning house, using his powers to make the flames die away. "No, no, no… it can't…this…why…" Raymond stuttered as the flames all died out, leaving nothing but ashes around the area. "He can't…be dead….."  
Raymond felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Emily with tears in her eyes. 

"I'm sorry Raymond…" She hugged him tightly, never letting go. Tears ran down both their faces as they remembered the good friend that they had, now gone. 

Suddenly, they heard a cough, and both of them turned to see Garry standing aside them, with an oxygen mask strapped over his mouth. 

"Hey guys, I'm glad to hear that you miss me and all, but I'm not going away that easily. Besides, fire doesn't affect me all that much, remember?" Garry smiled as both Emily and Raymond ran to him and gave him a big hug. 

"Ok guys, enough with all the fluffy, emotional moments. I'm not dead, don't worry." 

Raymond stood back managing a small smile. "Yeah, I shoulda known it would take more than that to kill you. Besides, you are my brother anyways…" 

"Yeah…" Garry agreed, grinning. Suddenly, he stopped walking. "Wait, where's Jessica?" 

"She's back…." Raymond stopped and looked at where his car was parked. Jessica was missing! There was absolutely no way possible she could have disappeared like that, and yet she was gone. 

"Woah, where'd she go?" Garry asked. "I have a strange feeling…" he frowned deeply. 

"No, it's not possible." Raymond said, slowly shaking his head from side to side. "She wouldn't do something like this, trust me. All these incidents today are somehow making us turn against each other. We all just need to calm down and sit down somewhere. You know, maybe get a nice cup of coffee too while we're at it." 

Garry shook his head in response. "No way, something big is going on, I can feel it. We don't have time to waste! We have to go find Jessica and then Malcolm too!" 

"Wait, you're hurt," Emily said concernedly, taking Garry's hand. "Raymond's right, you should sit down and rest a while." 

"No, I can't." Garry stated. "I have to get to the bottom of this matter!" 

Raymond sighed. "I don't know if we should. I mean, you and Luke almost got killed. Maybe we should just give it a rest, it's getting WAY too dangerous." 

Garry winked. "So? Isn't danger like our middle names? We've done riskier things before, why hesitate now." 

"Because…" Raymond looked sadly at Emily, "I don't want anyone else getting hurt." 

Emily looked at Raymond with understanding, slowly walked over to him, and then hugged him close with appreciation and thankfulness. 

"He really does care about me!" Emily thought, smiling. 

The three of them walked to the rear of the house where the unscathed garage was situated. Inside stood Malcolm's black BMW and Luke's Porsche.

Raymond spoke up: "We should probably head over to the hospital to check on Luke. From what I've seen, he doesn't look all that great." 

Garry frowned in deep thought. "I'm sorry Raymond, we can't. Jessica is probably in danger from what it looks like. Whoever's responsible for this probably took Jessica away too." 

Raymond nodded. "Well, what if Emily went over to the hospital to give Luke company? She'll be safe there while we go look for Jessica." 

"Alright, that seems like a good idea." Garry hopped into the black BMW. "Emily can drive herself with Luke's car, since he'll probably want it anyways. I hope Malcolm doesn't mind that his car is gone." 

Raymond was about to follow, when he felt Emily tug him back. As he turned around, she gave him a full kiss on the lips. "Please be careful, Raymond..." Emily waved goodbye as she got in the Porsche, and drove off towards the hospital. 

Raymond just stood there for a few seconds, smiling dazedly with one hand on his lips. "Well, that was new." He thought amusedly. 

"Come on, Raymond!" Garry started up the engine and honked the horn at full blast on Raymond. 

"Ok ok, I'm coming….." Raymond got in the car still dazed, and the pair drove off around the city in search of any clues or leads that could possible help them in what was turning out to be a dangerous quest. 

Meanwhile: 

"YOU IMBECILE!" Malcolm shoved a crow into a wall, and mercilessly beat him. "YOU DIDN'T KILL THEM! THEY SURVIVED! YOU FOOL!" Malcolm picked up the crow and flung him to the ground. 

" master, it's not my fault Garry managed to shield themselves with a sand-wall before the grenade exploded." 

Malcolm growled. "It's been hard enough living in the alleyways trying to stay undetected from my meddling brothers without you having to screw up my plans with your mistakes!" 

A raven walked up towards the pair. "Sir, I've done as you've asked!" The raven saluted Malcolm. 

"Ah, and how did it go?" Malcolm seemed to have temporarily forgotten the crow, who tried to limp away. 

"Good news sir, it seems as if she's believed it, and she's headed out of the city right now as we speak." The raven said. 

"Good, good, now that Jessica's gone chasing a decoy around the planet, we'll be able to successfully run the rest of our plan without any major problems." Malcolm mused satisfied. 

"And what about the red one, what are you planning to do?" 

Malcolm grinned evilly. "Oh, about that, I've decided on something much, MUCH more twisted. I'm going to do something that'll rock his world, but I have to wait a while in order for it to work. It includes our 'little', or should I say, 'big' friend, the Minotaur. After that's taken care of, Raymond won't have the heart to fight or resist us, you can count on that, especially after his reaction to our failed plot today. Trust me, it'll horrify you too." 

Each word they spoke seemed to count the seconds down towards the big finale of the end of Newark.


	10. Chapter 10

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 10  
Central Newark Mayor's office  
3:29 pm 

After an hour of fruitless searching for Jessica, Garry and Raymond decided to visit someone they thought could help them on their mission. The pair of them walked into the Mayor's office with a determined expression on their faces. 

Mathim, in the middle of reading some figures on his laptop, looked up at them with interest. "Oh, it's you two. Any luck, gentlemen?" 

"Well…." Raymond started to say before he was interrupted by someone else rushing into the room. 

"You can't believe how happy I am to see you guys!" Garry and Raymond stood completely still with surprise to see Malcolm right in front of them. "Someone's kidnapped and tried to assassinate me today, and I just managed to escape! I've been all over the place, searching for you guys, except you weren't at home. Well, I mean there's not really much of a home anymore… What happened, anyways?" 

Garry and Raymond were still standing there in silence. "You-you" Raymond began. 

"What?" Malcolm asked, putting on a face a pure innocence. 

Garry continued over Raymond. "We—I all…thought.. you" Garry couldn't finish. 

"What?" Malcolm asked again. 

Raymond cleared his throat and composed himself. "Me and Garry were suspicious that it was YOU behind everything. I mean, you can't blame us with your dodgy behavior and all." 

"Oh," Malcolm said. "Of course, blame me. That's DEFINITELY fair, after what I've been through and all." 

Mathim looked at the three. "Well, have you all figured everything out now?" 

Raymond nodded. "Yes, we're all good now." Raymond put his fists on the desk. "Sir, there's been a murderer going around, attempting to kill members of my family, and I want him stopped. I want that security system installed NOW." 

Behind Raymond and Garry, Malcolm smiled viciously. His plan was working well indeed. 

Mathim agreed. "Yes, it's time we do it. Why not a better time than now?" He picked up his phone, and started to make several calls. "Excuse me for a moment, gentlemen, I'm going to be fairly busy. Why don't you all find something else to do in the meanwhile?" Mathim suggested. 

As the trio of them walked outside, they heard Mathim arguing about costs and something else with whoever was on the other end. Then the door closed, and there was an awkward silence as they made their way to the elevator. 

"Soo…. Are we good now?" Raymond stuck his hand out for Malcolm to shake. 

Malcolm accepted it. "Yeah, we're all good. After all, we're siblings, and we'd never do something to hurt one another." Malcolm seemed to gag a little as he said the last several words. 

Garry grinned. "Alright, so we're back now! Let's stop that person; whoever he is, once and for all!" 

They all laughed, and as they headed down the elevator, it seemed as if nothing else could go wrong, but only in the minds of Garry and Raymond. 

Raymond and Emily's house  
5:54 pm 

"Hey, so where are we going today, Raymond?" Emily asked surprised. Raymond had come home seeming pretty relaxed and carefree, just like normal. He had told her that they were going out somewhere special today, and that she should probably dress up nicely. Emily put on a long, short sleeved black dress on top of a white blouse and wore shining silver shoes that sparkled when light reflected off of it. 

"I told you, it's a secret!" Raymond passed by Emily's room, fixing the cuff of his black tuxedo. "Hey, how was Luke doin-" Raymond stopped completely still as he saw Emily. 

Emily giggled. "Like it?" She twirled around for show, smiling prettily at Raymond. "I hope it's nice enough." 

Raymond blushed. "Uh.. it course is…. I mean of course it is!" He mentally smacked himself in the head. 

Emily stopped twirling. "The doctors said Luke was fine, it's just that he'll need to stay in the hospital for a few days, recovering from his injuries." 

"Oh..that's…good." Raymond wasn't really paying attention, still staring at Emily. 

Emily laughed when she saw Raymond gaping at her. "Oh come on, you're flattering me. I can't be THAT pretty." 

Raymond composed himself and grinned. "Nope, you can't be THAT pretty, you're EXCEPTIONALLY pretty." 

Emily laughed at his joke. "Okay now you're just being silly. Don't you think we should head out now?" 

"Yeah, I'm ready whenever you are!" 

"K, let's go then!" Emily raced out the door with Raymond chasing after her. 

Central Newark  
6:12 

"Ok just keep your eyes closed!" Raymond was guiding Emily along a busy sidewalk through a crowd of citizens. 

"Haha, okay! But I think I have a good idea where you're taking me already." Emily said with a smirk on her face. 

"Alright then, enlighten me," Raymond asked amusedly. 

"Well….." Emily thought for a moment. "I'm pretty sure that to get you THIS excited about taking me out would mean that we're going somewhere REALLY special." 

"Go on." 

"And by that, I mean expensive as well." 

"Well…..not really…." 

"Yeah, somewhere VERY expensive, you just wanna hide it from me so I don't feel bad about you paying for it." 

"Well, you do!" 

"I'm guessing since it's near dinner, that we're going out to eat somewhere." 

"Yep, you're getting hotter." 

"So, what other place than the most expensive restaurant in Newark could it be? 

"Bingo!" Raymond took his hands off Emily's eyes, and she gasped. In front of her was a lavish, gourmet seafood restaurant. The name didn't really matter; it was the price of the items on the menu outside that she was looking at. 

"Wow, really Raymond, you didn't have to do this! It's not even a special day or holiday today!" 

Raymond shushed her. "Well, spending time with you makes everyday a special day for me." He winked at her. 

Emily hugged him. "Thank you, really. Though sometimes I feel you spoil me too much." 

Raymond smirked. "Yeah I know, horrible isn't it?" He wrapped one arm around her waist, and led her inside. As Emily was glanced around at everyone else, who all seemed to be wearing very expensive suits and dresses, she looked up at Raymond, and thought about him. 

"I think he really cares about me, but I still can't bring up the courage to tell him how I feel… he's so nice to me, I wish I could make it up somehow….." 

Emily's thoughts drifted, until a waiter came up to them, and led them to their table, one which was outside on the deck in a secluded area. Overhead, a full moon and several bright stars shone brightly, lighting up the deck. A single candle burned in the middle on the table, giving off a romantic feel. The noises outside were distant, almost nonexistent as Emily sat down and started thinking about Raymond again. 

"I wonder what he thinks of me? I'm sure he likes me, but I don't see what there is to like about myself. I mean yeah, I help around at home, but other than that, I don't do very much for him…. And he does so much for me… Maybe I don't deserve all this." 

Raymond noticed that Emily seemed to be looking a bit down. "What is it?" Raymond asked concerned. "Something wrong?" 

Emily looked into Raymond's confused face. "No…..not really…" 

Raymond walked around over to her. "Hey, you don't need to feel bad about anything. I'm doing all this…. Well you'll see." Raymond sat back down, leaving Emily a bit confused. 

"What wait do you me-." She was interrupted by a waiter who walked up to the table. 

"Are you two ready to order yet?" the waiter pulled out a pen and notepad. 

Raymond glanced quickly at the menu, and then looked up. "I think we're about ready. We'll get the chef's special for two please, with two glasses of lemonade." He looked at Emily. "I mean, unless you wanted something else….?" 

Emily shook her head. "No, that's fine….perfect, I mean." She smiled at Raymond. 

The waiter nodded. "Alright, your meal will be out shortly." He left, leaving the two of them alone, each lost in their own thoughts….


	11. Chapter 11

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 11  
6:25 

As Raymond and Emily were lost in their own thoughts, the waiter came up to them and placed a dish of seafood in front of them. It was a large bowl with shrimp hanging around the rim in a circle, topped with seasoning and melted cheese. On the inside, crab meat was laced around each other, all covered in a thick, creamy, buttery sauce. It looked amazing, but it probably tasted even better. 

Raymond handed a fork to Emily. "Here, ladies first!" She gratefully accepted it, and scooped up a pile of crab meat with the butter dripping off the sides. Emily then slowly lifted to her mouth, and closed it, chewing thoughtfully. 

"Well….. how is it?" Raymond asked her excitedly. 

Emily's eyes widened. "Wow! Try it for yourself and see!" 

Raymond picked up another fork, and tried the crab as well. Once the crab instantly entered his mouth, it immediately melted into buttery, salty goodness. There wasn't a word quite good enough to describe it. 

"Good choice, huh?" Raymond asked as the two of them took turns drinking from a straw in a glass of sugary lemonade. 

"Mhmm.." Emily said. She felt so happy that the two of them could spend time together and have fun. She only wished that Raymond didn't have to be so busy with everything….. 

Meanwhile: 

Garry leapt from rooftop to rooftop stealthily. He was assigned first watch tonight, and he wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong while he was in charge. He made his way to the Central Newark Building, and scaled it. He could have just walked in and taken the elevator, but he liked the thrill of doing it this way instead. Besides, it helped him keep in shape too. As he reached the top floor of the building, he lifted up one of the windows, and pulled himself in, landing on the ground in a crouched position. He stood up and walked over to one of the main computers in the room. It was hooked up to a large circuit wire in the wall, and had multiple wires come out of it, connecting it to all the other smaller computers. The computer was turned off, so Garry reached for the power switch and flicked it on. 

AUTHORIZATION ID? _ 

Garry typed in several letters… 

AUTHORIZATION ID? _GARRY PROLLE_  
ACCESS GRANTED  
SCANNING NETWORK SYSTEM… 

Several lines of text appeared on the screen. It included stuff like the number of soldiers, secret codes, future plans, etc.. 

SCANNING NETWORK SYSTEM: DONE  
LOADING SECURITY BUFFER….. 

Garry sighed and pulled a chair over. It was going to be a long night…. 

Raymond / Emily's house  
7:26 

Raymond and Emily had just parked the car in the garage, and now where walking to the front door, holding hands. Emily was smiling prettily. 

"I really enjoyed the dinner, thank you Raymond!" Emily said. 

Raymond smiled. "No problem…. Woah!" Raymond appeared to trip and fall down on his knees. Emily bent down, concerned. 

"Are you okay Raymond?" she asked nervously. 

Slowly, Raymond looked up, and took one of Emily's hands in his own. "Well… I am… in fact when I have you around. You see, you mean a lot to me, and I've always wanted to thank you, which is what the dinner was for. But there's more to that; over the past years, I've never had the courage to admit this to you, but I've really liked you… I mean it! You know, you're not too bad looking…" Raymond said with a smirk on his face. "In fact, I think you're the prettiest person I've ever known... The way you show infinite kindness and caring towards me and other people really makes me feel so lucky to have you as a friend. But I really want to be more than that, and I've finally found the courage to ask, so…" Raymond drew out the ring from his pocket. "Will you accept the humble offer of Raymond Prolle to be your husband?" Raymond asked smiling. 

Emily was lost for words. "I—I-….." Suddenly, tears started to pour down her face. "YES! Of course I do! I….." She gasped when she looked at the ring "Oh my gosh.. this is all too much for me.." She started to cry, and Raymond hugged her tightly. After a few moments, Emily drew back, smiling. "Yes, you know I love you so much Raymond Prolle, no matter what." She ruffled his hair, and drew in for a kiss. The two stayed there, a minute, five minutes, ten minutes? They didn't know, but all they cared about was that they had each other, and that was all that mattered. 

Nothing could have been more perfect in the minds of Raymond and Emily; everything was how it should be; both of them happy together…. 

11:39 pm 

Garry was snoring peacefully in the chair. A cup of coffee that was half-full in his hands was dangerously tipping towards the floor. The computer was still giving off lines of random text. Suddenly, a figure appeared out of nowhere and withdrew two, long double-bladed swords. One of them was a dark green hue, and the other, crystal white. It started to slowly walk towards Garry, step by step. 

"Huh?" As Garry woke up yawning and stretching. "Raymond?" 

That was all he had time to say when he saw the figure whack him in the side of the head with the side of the blade. Everything turned dark after that… 

The red fox then turned his attention to the computer. He quickly typed in a few letters, and then ran and jumped out the open window. 

BUFFER ABORTED: SYSTEM SHUTDOWN IMMINENT 

The computer then died out with a "whirr" sound. 

11:49 

A Raven and a Minotaur were hiding in the shadows of a dark alleyway along with a Black Fox. In front of them, a red fox jumped down and saluted them. 

"Sir, the invasion has begun, better to start your objective now." The red fox nodded towards the Raven and Minotaur, as they turned around and headed in a specific direction. The red fox suddenly shifted shape, and turned into a white one with green stripes coming down the sides of his body. 

Malcolm nodded, obviously pleased. "Well then, looks like the fall of Newark has begun. Soon, I'll be able to show everyone who's the real boss around this place." He stalked around the area. "And I'll make sure none of my siblings can oppose me!" 

Overhead, a streak of lightning flashed, and rain started to pour down. Somehow, it seemed to signal the beginning of a bloody, inevitable conflict.


	12. Chapter 12

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 12

Raymond's house

11:51 pm

Raymond was tossing and turned in bed. For some reason, he couldn't sleep...

Raymond turned over and glanced at Emily, who was sleeping peacefully beside him. Raymond smiled warmly as he looked at her beauty. Her light, emerald green eyes were closed, and her mouth was twitched in a small smile. One of her hands was cuddling Raymond's twin tails while the other gently held his muzzle. She was snoring gently, her bangs and whiskers swaying slightly every time she breathed out of her mouth. Raymond was memorized by watching her. He could have gone on like this for the whole night...

Suddenly he felt thirsty all of a sudden. Raymond carefully pulled back the bed sheets as to not wake up Emily, and jumped out of bed. He made his way to the bedroom door, and pulled it open...

...and stared straight into the evil face of Claw the raven. Claw grinned maliciously, and struck out at Raymond's cheek with his talons, drawing blood. Raymond yelped in pain, doubling over as Claw landed another blow by kneeing Raymond in the stomach. He grunted in pain and doubled over clutching his stomach with one hand, the wind knocked out of him temporarily. As Claw advanced towards Raymond again, Raymond grabbed Claw and shoved him against the wall forcefully.

"Emilyy! Runn!" Raymond yelled out, grappling with Claw.

Emily suddenly woke up. "Huh?" She replied sleepily, rubbing her eyes. Right then, the entire window shattered and the Minotaur crashed into the room, drawing his gray battle sword. Emily screamed, and rolled out of bed, trying to escape. The Minotaur lashed out at her, sending Emily flying into the nearby wall. As she lay there, dazed, Raymond became furious, and hammered Claw with another punch to the head.

Then, Raymond raised both hands, and fire sprung from them. "Now I don't know what you guys want, but you better not mess with us, or you'll get burned!" He scowled menacingly.

Claw snarled back in return and charged at Raymond, who easily dodged it by stepping to the side. Raymond punched Claw in the back, hand still on fire. Smoke trailed from Claw's back as he ran around the room, yelping.

Raymond was about to congratulate himself when the Minotaur charged into him, sending him flying into the opposite wall. As Raymond was doubled over again in pain, he noticed Claw drawing two very vicious looking knives from his belt.

Claw threw one of them at Raymond, who instinctively ducked. The knife embedded itself in the wall, an inch above Raymond's head. As Claw prepared to throw the other, Raymond had already pulled the knife out of the wall and thrown it...

Claw gasped as he stared at the hilt sticking out of his chest. He sank to his knees, and the other knife fell to the floor and he pitched forwards, dead.

Raymond sat up, and tried to get up. However, he stopped. The Minotaur was standing 20 feet away, holding the knife that Claw had dropped. The Minotaur was spinning it lazily, but increasing the speed by the second. Raymond knew that it was over. There was no possible way that he could miss...

"Why…? Why are you doing this? What do you want?" Raymond asked the Minotaur, already resigned in defeat.

The Minotaur just laughed. "I have my orders..."

"Orders? From who?" Raymond asked curiously.

The Minotaur grinned evilly. "I thought you already knew…. Malcolm..."

Raymond's eyes widened, enraged. "Malcolm? So he's really behind all this? WHY? WHY IS HE DOING ALL THIS?" He spat in contempt.

"From the beginning, Malcolm has been involved in different organizations and movements to overthrow Newark. And finally, it looks like he's succeeded." The Minotaur kept spinning the knife. "Now as to WHY he's doing this... from what I've gathered, it's because he doesn't very much like any of you four... basically..."

"So he's doing all this because he doesn't like us? IS THAT IT? Really?"

"He has his other reasons... which I am not authorized to disclose with you..." The Minotaur laughed again. "Listen outside Raymond.. hear the fall of Newark..."

Raymond concentrated his ears on the noise outside, and heard people shouting, crying out. There were sounds of metal on metal, as well as gunfire and lasers…

Raymond bent over, defeated.

"So this is it... is this where my life ends?" Raymond asked himself quietly. The Minotaur overheard him and laughed cruelly one last time.

"Goodbye, Raymond..." The Minotaur suddenly flung the spinning knife at Raymond. As it whizzed through the air, Raymond closed his eyes in defeat... And then heard the sound of a thud and a sad sigh..

Surprised, Raymond opened his eyes to see Emily in front of him, smiling sadly. She was bent over, in the gesture of protecting him. The knife was sticking out of her back... but she was still smiling, knowing full well that she gave up her life for Raymond's...

Emily slowly slumped down to the ground while Raymond sat there, unbelieving.

"No...no..." Raymond whispered, temporarily forgetting about the Minotaur. He bent over Emily, and placed a hand on her forehead. "Please.. no..."

Raymond slowly stood up, fists clenched, teeth gritted. "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS!" Raymond screamed as he charged at the Minotaur, shoulders lowered. The Minotaur just laughed evilly, and grabbed Raymond, flinging him to the far wall. As Raymond crashed right through the wall, the Minotaur slowly walked towards him..

"Is that all you have?" The Minotaur taunted. "You're weak!"

Tears leaked out of Raymond's eyes. He lowered his head, eyes closed.. "He's right, I am weak.. I've failed you Emily...failed to protect you... I'm such a miserable failure..."

Raymond tried to walk towards the Minotaur, but fell down to the ground in agony next to the corpse of Claw. The Minotaur strode over to Raymond, laughing cruelly.

"You LOSE, Raymond Prolle!" The Minotaur leered. He drew his battle sword and was about to bring it slashing downwards when...

Suddenly, Raymond rolled over and stabbed the Minotaur in the heart with the knife that was just previously embedded inside Claw. As the Minotaur just stared in complete shock at Raymond, Raymond slowly got up in pain.

"You're right, I did lose... everything in fact.. everything that was important to me..." Raymond spoke as the Minotaur collapsed to the ground, dead. "I hope you're happy now that you've killed an innocent girl. I hope they have a special spot in Hell, just for you..."

Raymond shut his eyes closed, but then quickly opened them to the sound of Emily coughing. Raymond quickly ran over to Emily, who was weakly groaning in pain.

"Emily!" Raymond hugged her tightly, sobbing. "Why! Why did you have to do take that knife!" Raymond asked her in vain.

Emily smiled sadly. "Because... I love you Raymond... that's why.. that's all the reason I need.."

Raymond cried. "So do I Emily! I love you so much!" He bent over and kissed Emily on the lips, as both of them were now crying.

As they broke away, Emily sighed. "Too bad we couldn't have lived together… forever... too bad I couldn't get to live long enough to marry you... seems like it was just all a dream..."

"No.. please don't say that.." Raymond choked between tears. "I would have LOVED for that to have happen... You'll be alright, I promise." Raymond managed a small smile. "Let me just go get the doctors and.."

"No.." Emily cut him off. She smiled sadly. "It's too late, Raymond." She hugged Raymond tightly. "I may have to leave you now, but know that I will still always love you, forever, Raymond Prolle..."

And so Emily died, still smiling, still in the arms of Raymond...

Outside on a balcony overlooking the defeated city of Newark, Malcolm grinned. His band of traitors and his Allies, the Meterex were victorious, easily invading and surprising the unprepared Newark Army. With Garry unconscious, Luke in the hospital, Jessica gone, and Raymond sleeping… along with the Army's weapons and systems shut down thanks to the 'security system', victory had been no problem to achieve. Below, all the soldiers raised their arms and cheered.

It seems as though evil has finally won after all...


	13. Chapter 13

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 13  
12:04 am  
Raymond and Emily's house: 

Raymond was slumped against the wall, uncaring of what was going on. He was still in shock, still in pain, and overcome with immense sadness at the loss of Emily… 

Emily…. The one person he cared about most… the one person that meant so much to him, was now dead, because she sacrificed herself in order to save HIM. Raymond didn't even feel like living anymore. He thought that his life was much less important than Emily's, which is why he spent so much time and effort in protecting the city and defending against other enemies. And yet when it mattered most, he failed. Miserably. He didn't feel like a hero anymore; Emily was the real hero, she was the one who was willing to give up everything; even her own life, to save him. Emily always cared for him and tended to his wounds whenever he was injured. And now she was gone. Raymond didn't feel like his life was worth saving when it meant giving up Emily's life. How could he ever possibly live without her? He couldn't, it wasn't possible. He thought about ending his life by himself, then and there, but yet, he couldn't... He knew that Emily gave up her life for him for a reason. A purpose. She wanted him to be safe, but also he knew that she would have wanted him to help other people as well. He couldn't die, people everywhere still needed a hero to save them. Life still went on and there were still many troubles in the world. And Emily knew that, and sacrificed herself to protect him. To protect him… He wasn't the one protecting her; she was the one protecting HIM. 

All of these thought were running through Raymond's mind when he heard a loud BANG near his house as the ground vibrated dangerously. He suddenly snapped out of his thoughts. Raymond knew he needed to get out of here first, as soon as possible, but he couldn't just leave Emily...

Another explosion, this time closer, prompted Raymond to rush about and hurriedly pack a few things into a large traveler's backpack. He knew that even though he didn't want to, he had to let go of Emily for now… 

He gently lifted Emily's lifeless form and placed her delicately on the bed. He then carefully pulled the sheets up to her chest, and tucked her in bed. To anyone else observing, it looked as though Emily was just sleeping, but Raymond knew the hard truth… He turned around one last time to gaze upon her beauty. She looked as if she WAS indeed sleeping peacefully, and for a moment, Raymond was convinced any minute that she would yawn and wake up, and then everything would be alright… But it wasn't... Tears rushed down Raymond's face. He felt so cold-hearted just leaving Emily there all alone by herself, right after she sacrificed herself for him, but he knew that he had to leave. Somehow, he felt as if Emily was telling him that it was alright, that he had to move on and just go. But Raymond knew he wouldn't. 

"I might have to go now, but trust me, I'll never forget you. I'll always love you, Emily, forever and ever as well….." Raymond slowly walked down the hallway, determined. He kept increasing his speed, and when he reached the front door, he was practically running…. running…running…running… 

Trees, streets, buildings, grass, stars, they all passed him as he sped by, running like he had never before in his life. He didn't know what was driving him on. Maybe it was because he was still too scared to deal with the fact that Emily was dead. Maybe it was because he had made a promise to her that he intended to keep. As he kept on running away, around his neck dangled a necklace, a black diamond in the shape of a cross….. 

Jessica sighed sadly, tears forming in her eyes. She jumped down from her perch on a tree branch, and opened the window she was spying into. In the room, Emily was still lying there, peacefully, her emerald green eyes still closed. Jessica walked over to her, and stood there in silence, her head bowed respectfully…. 

Outside, Jessica climbed into an interesting looking spaceship that was parked in the backyard of Raymond's house. Yesterday, she had been all over to place, chasing a decoy in this spaceship that Mayor Mathim had built for top-secret assignments and missions. And yet, when she finally found out that it was all a trick, she was too late. Jessica knew that she couldn't stay here and fight because she'd get killed. And she couldn't follow Raymond because she knew that he needed to be alone. So the last option that came to her mind was just to leave all this behind and run away…. To whatever place she came across….. As the engines started and it blasted off into space, she had only one thought on her mind. 

"I don't know what you're doing Raymond, but whatever it is, I hope you'll be okay…." 

Raymond was running across an empty plain, when he heard a strange noise. He looked up into the sky, and saw a spaceship blasting off away. He looked after it until it disappeared thoughtfully. 

"Wherever you are now, Emily, whatever you're doing. I hope you're okay…" 

He continued running off, not caring about his fatigue or tiredness. 

"In fact I know it, that you're alright in a better place than this hell. And you'll always be there, looking down upon me, smiling, encouraging me even when I fail. I'm still sad, but I feel okay now knowing that you're better off now…" 

Raymond was crying silently.

"And even though that makes me sad that you can't be here with me, I know that you're happy now that you get to be with your parents and everyone else…..my only wish in my entire life has always been to make you happy, no matter what, and I'm sorry if I haven't lived up to that standard. 

Somewhere spiritual….. 

Emily seemed to be looking down somewhere. 

"Don't be sorry, Raymond." She said, even though she knew Raymond couldn't hear her. "You've always made me happy, and I've really enjoyed being with you…. Inside, I'm still sad, but you're right, I am okay, because I know that I was able to give up my life for such a good person….a person that I will always love with all my heart….." Emily smiled warmly, as she faded into a bright light… 

Overhead Raymond, a star seemed to twinkle. Raymond noticed it, and stopped running. As he slowed down to a halt, he smiled as well…. 

"Thank you…Emily….for always being there when I need you.…" Raymond said. Looking up into the night sky, he could almost picture Emily's face, looking down upon him. Raymond sighed sadly. "I know that you're okay…. I know I'm being selfish wanting you back here with me… I shouldn't feel this way, so from now on, I promise that I'm going to try my best to still be cheerful and happy, even without you….

A shooting star flew above Raymond, as if to seal that promise. Raymond could almost picture Emily giggling and saying "Alright Raymond, I'm going to hold you to that!" 

Raymond started to run again... faster and faster… now he that knew what his purpose was without Emily, he started to feel motivated and encouraged again. Emily was dead, but she still lived on inside of him. Always there, comforting him, encouraging him, and always loving him.


	14. Chapter 14

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 14  
8:49 am  
Location Unknown…. 

Somewhere, far away from the destroyed, razed city of Newark, lay a calm, quiet plain. Tall, green grass swayed everywhere in the cool summer breeze. Birds were chirping happily, and bees flew around, buzzing noisily. In the middle of the field lay a certain dark red colored fox, sound asleep with a content smile on his face. Occasionally, a bee would circle around his head and land on his face, making him twitch in his sleep as he tried to get rid of the irritating itch. Finally, Raymond woke up, yawned lazily, and stretched his arms. He got up, and got ready to start a brand new day strong and fresh. Then, it hit him like a freight train. 

The agony and depression of what had happened last night… Emily… she was really gone. Gone forever. 

Raymond sighed sadly. "Stop it Raymond…" he scolded himself. "Emily's safe and happy now, don't be such a selfish wimp and cry because you want her back…." Raymond cursed himself as hard as he could as if that would really make him feel less bad. 

"She's with her family now, and you're still alive. What reason do you have to feel sad?" Raymond smacked himself in the head. The coupling of the stinging pain and the sadness inside of him made a few tears leak out. Raymond sighed unhappily. 

"But….. I still want her back…. I still want to spend more time with her…. I still want to do so many different things with her…. I still want to make her happy and laugh and have fun…" Raymond said depressed. "DANG IT! I WANT YOU BACK HERE WITH ME EMILY! I CAN'T LIVE LIKE THIS ALONE!" Raymond beat the ground with his fist so hard he heard a pop and felt indescribable pain racing up his arm. 

"OWW!" Raymond howled and clutched his now broken finger. He rolled around in the grass, waiting for the pain to subside. After a few minutes, he sniffed and shook his head sadly. 

"Well, I guess that was stupid. I'm such a failure and weak…" Raymond rolled on his back and lay there. Then, he stood back up, determined. 

"But I bet Emily wouldn't want me to stop here, I can't accept defeat no matter what. Even if I don't want to, at the very least I'm doing it for her. That's the very least I could do for all she's done for me. Even giving up her life to save my own…." Raymond sighed again, and slowly trod onwards towards the direction of where he thought was the nearest city. 

Newark Meterex Headquarters: 

Dark Oak sat thoughtfully on a large chair in the middle of a room. In front of him was a table on which either side sat most of his generals as well as Malcolm's top leaders. On the opposite end sat Malcolm himself. He was leaning back in his chair, arms crossed, grinning hysterically. 

"Well, I'll say my plan worked well," Malcolm boasted. "If I hadn't been able to trick the mayor into setting up a computer that connected the entire network of Newark's security operations, and then shutting it all down, you guys wouldn't have been able to breach the city at all!" 

Yellow Zelkova pounded the table with his fist. "Well? I would have been able to punch straight through that wall any day, that's for sure!" The other Meterex generals put their foreheads in their hands, shook their heads, and sighed. 

"Yes, it's true, Malcolm. That plan was most INNOVATIVE indeed," Pale Bay Leaf complemented. "But the credit goes to me for leading my army to rampage down the streets and slaughter mostly everyone. 

"But if it wasn't for my quick thinking, strong army, and good looks, there would have been some escapers," Black Narcissus countered. 

Dark Oak sat back and relaxed. Malcolm was a valuable asset, but even he had no idea for what the Meterex were really planning to do. All he had to do was find that planet egg, and he and his cohorts could be out of here as fast as he could. 

While the group of Meterex generals were busy arguing amongst each other, one of Malcolm's leaders, a white fox with green stripes, stood up from his chair and walked over to Malcolm.

"Malcolm sir, we have two guests that you might want to speak with privately." Slash spoke in a low voice so no one else would hear. 

Malcolm nodded. "Alright Slash, I'll be out with them in a minute. You on the other hand have a mission." Malcolm went on to explain. "You see, it seems like…. Claw and his friend have had a minor inconvenience in their attempt to kill Raymond." 

Slash was taken aback. "You mean he escaped?" 

"Yes, and the fact that they're dead." Malcolm agreed. 

Slash looked confused. "Death really isn't a 'minor inconvenience'…." 

"Well I want you to track that pesky fox down and hunt him and KILL HIM, am I clear?" Malcolm demanded. 

Slashed nodded furiously. "YES SIR!" Slash abruptly left the room, his swords in hand. Malcolm followed behind, leaving the celebrating victors to continue talking. He walked down a hallway, and turned left into a small room. There, kneeled two foxes, both in chains. One of them, a light-brown one, looked up, and jumped to his feet. 

"Malcolm! Help me get out of these!" Garry shook his chains. 

Malcolm laughed. "And why on earth would I do something like that?" 

"Because… I want to KILL RAYMOND for betraying us all!" Garry shouted, eyes bloodshot. 

(Remember Garry thought he saw Raymond shut down the computer when it really was Slash who had shape-shifted)

Malcolm stopped, and nodded thoughtfully. "Hmm…. Well so do I. Good thing that our friends the Meterex came to our aid just in time to drive out Raymond's rebel army that massacred the entire city, huh?" 

"Yeah….. I'm gonna make him PAY!" Garry growled. 

Malcolm unlocked Garry's chains and Garry rubbed his sore forearms. "But I still don't get why you had to lock us up when you found us lying unconscious and injured…." 

"I didn't want any of my siblings to get hurt, especially when they can join forces with me to hunt Raymond down." Malcolm explained. He turned over to Luke, who was beaten bloody. "And you?"

Luke sighed. "Well, I don't know. It just doesn't seem like Raymond would-…." 

Malcolm cut him off. "Nonsense, do you think Garry would lie to you?" 

Luke shook his head. "Noo.…" 

"Good then, because that's the right answer. Raymond undoubtedly has run away like the coward he is, and we need someone with your mental capacity and powers to help us bring justice to him!" 

"Well… I guess when you put it that way…" Malcolm unlocked Luke's chains as well. 

Malcolm smirked "None of us could have ever imagined Raymond would possibly betray us like this, but now that he has, we need to put a stop to his evil before he causes more bloodshed and suffering!" 

What Malcolm, Luke, Garry, and Raymond didn't know is that by this new agreement, not all of them would survive through the bitter end of this story to tell the tale.


	15. Chapter 15

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 15  
Outside gates of Woodberry  
9:12 am 

After following a dirt path that looped around a solitary forest, Raymond made his way to Newark's neighboring city, Woodberry. Unlike Newark, which was a stone-walled fortress that specialized in its army and fighting forces, Woodberry was more of a village where people all over the planet came to trade and sell goods. As Raymond walked into the city, and passed by many colorful vendors and elaborately dressed people, he felt an air of tension and fear. The city had already been informed of Newark's defeat, and many people were rushing to sell the last of their products before they ran away since the invaders would most likely make their way to them next. City patrolmen and guards circled the outside borders, nervously clutching spears and guns in hand. 

Kicking the sandy ground underneath his feet, Raymond casually walked up to a nearby citizen who happened to be near a dairy cart, and approached him. 

"Do you know where the nearest hospital is?" Raymond indicated his broken finger. 

The citizen looked past Raymond's shoulder. "There, if you walk another half mile, you should see it. It's a big, white building surrounded by apple trees, you can't miss it." The citizen looked nervously around and lowered his voice. "Though you better be quick since there are rumors of a new enemy, one strong enough to have completely destroyed Newark! They're coming this way next, you be sure of it." 

"Thanks…" Raymond wasn't worried. He was just going to fix up his finger, and be out of there as soon as possible. His main worry was in the long run; how was he going to keep running away? Even a planet had boundaries. He knew he couldn't stand up to Malcolm and his new allies alone, even though as much as he'd like to get revenge. 

"Emily….." Raymond's thoughts trailed back to her…. 

The citizen turned around. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" 

Raymond jumped, startled. "No, no, just thinking about something else." Raymond walked in the direction the citizen had pointed out, carefully holding his right hand. As he walked past other vendors and markets, he kept wondering about his future. 

"If what the Minotaur said is true, Malcolm's out to get me. I'm surprised he hasn't done something about my escape yet…." … And then there was the matter of Emily to think about. Raymond sighed. He didn't know if he could ever get over her. But again, he didn't want to. He just had to stop feeling so depressed and sad. After all, like he had always been saying, she was fine now, happy in a better place. Why would he need to feel sad about that? Deep down inside though, he knew the real reason. He still wanted her back with him… But that was selfish, wasn't it? 

"All I've ever wanted is to make Emily happy, and if she is right now, then there's no need to feel bad…" 

Raymond started feeling a bit better, and he continued treading onwards. 

9:27 

After a while, Raymond finally made his way to the hospital. It was exactly as the guy he asked described it. It was huge, white-washed, and easily stood out. The scent of apples from the apple trees nearby drifted through the air. Raymond pushed the front doors open, and was immediately greeted with the cool blast of air conditioning. Even though it was early in the morning, it already was well above 85 degrees Fahrenheit with the sun tormenting him all day. The nurse at the front desk looked up and smiled at him. 

"Good morning," she beamed. 

"Hey.." Raymond walked up to her. "Umm.." he showed her his finger. "Do you know where I can get medical assistance for this?" 

The nurse frowned. "Oh, that doesn't look too good. Here, I'll show you along." The nurse walked around the desk and started down a hallway to her left. Raymond followed after her, hurrying to keep up. 

Soon, after a couple of minutes, they reached a room that was completely empty except for a couple of hospital beds and a doctor's desk. The nurse motioned for him to lie down on one of the beds. 

"Dr. Susan will be here in a minute. Try to make yourself comfortable and don't hesitate to ask if you need anything." The nurse walked out of the room, leaving Raymond alone with his thoughts. 

Finally, after a short wait, a swan wearing a stethoscope and holding a clipboard with documents

on there came up to Raymond. 

"What is your name, sir?" The swan asked politely. 

"Raymond…..Raymond Prolle." Raymond said hesitantly. He didn't know if it was from reading too many action books, but he wondered if Malcolm could come by here later and track him down that way. Or maybe he already had spies…. 

The nurse interrupted his thoughts. 

"Well, it seems as though you have a dislocated finger… I can reset it now if you'd like." The nurse offered. 

Raymond started thinking… "Dislocated? It sure hurt like it was broken. He suddenly started feeling like a sissy…. What did she mean by 'setting' anyways." 

"Sure," he answered. He didn't think it would hurt to— 

"Ow!" He yelled out for the second time today as the swan grabbed his finger and pushed it back into his socket. He pulled back his hand in reflex, and felt it cautiously. It still felt a bit sore, but it didn't hurt as much as before. The pain was subsiding as well… 

"Hey thanks!" Raymond said. He sat up, and it was then that the swan noticed the diamond hanging around his neck. She gasped and pointed to it. 

"Is that… is that…?" She couldn't even make out the words. 

Raymond looked down at the diamond confused. "What?" he asked. 

The swan grabbed his hand. "Here, follow me!" She grabbed one of his hands and started to drag him along. 

"Hey!" Raymond protested in vain. The swan pulled him out of the room through a small door that led outside the hospital. She pulled him into the nearest car, a brown jeep, and started up the car. Raymond scratched his head confused. 

"Uh, could you explain what's going on? Because I really don't…." The swan shed her doctor's outfit. Under it was a khaki t-shirt was jeans. 

"Uh, okaaay." Raymond said. "This is really weird…" 

As the swan was driving along, she turned around and smiled. "Sorry if I didn't introduce myself yet. I'm Susan. And you'll learn everything in a short while. Just sit back and be patient." They sped along for a few minutes, until Susan reached a house and turned onto the driveway. She stopped the engine, opened the car door, and stood outside, waiting patiently for Raymond. 

Raymond opened the car door, testing his right hand. The pain was now completely gone, he felt like it had never happened. 

"I'm coming, don't worry.." Raymond jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut behind him. He examined the house in front of him: a small townhouse that wasn't very different from any other house along the street. As the followed Susan inside, he kept wondering what in the world this was all about. 

"Here, follow me downstairs. My… ah… 'teacher', has been expecting you." 

Raymond was surprised. Someone he didn't even know had been expecting him? "Well, you know if this is some early surprise birthday party or…" He kept mumbling as Susan walked down a long flight of stairs to the basement. As she flicked the light on, the first thing Raymond noticed was the lady sitting in the middle of the room. She was middle-aged, some type of dog, but Raymond couldn't figure it out. The basement was mostly empty, as it was pretty unfinished. He could still see parts of the structure of the house through holes in the walls. The floor was plain concrete, and dust was everywhere in the room. In front of the Lady stood a table with some sorts of objects that Raymond inferred to be about fortune telling or something of the sort. 

"I've finally found him, teacher." Susan pointed towards Raymond. 

The lady looked up, and saw his necklace. 

"That necklace…." She then looked at his face. "I've been waiting for you for many years. We have a lot to talk about, Raymond Prolle."


	16. Chapter 16

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 16  
9:57 am 

Raymond was standing confused in front of the Lady. 

"Woah, how do you know my name?" he asked, surprised. 

The lady didn't change her blank facial expression. "I know more about you than you think…." 

Raymond frowned. "Alright, seriously, I want to know what's going on now." Raymond turned around. "Or else, I'm leaving." 

The lady didn't move a muscle. "Sit down Raymond, you've been one to act rashly. Don't worry, I'll explain everything." 

Raymond slowly turned back around, and sat down in front of the table. He remained silent while the lady continued. 

"That necklace.. it belonged to a great sorcerer many years ago. An echidna, whose name remains unknown even to this day. He had the power of controlling many forms of magic, and for years, used them to protect his city and family. But then…" the lady paused dramatically. "One day, he got the idea to try to use that power to create something. A new power that could bring back people from the dead. A power that he could use to become immortal." 

Raymond sat there, listening intently." So, what happened?" he asked. 

"Well, he succeeded, in part. You see, before, he had created an emerald of immense power, which he called the Master Emerald. But that power alone wasn't enough to do what he wanted. He needed a device that could absorb the energy of it, and convert it into the type of energy that he could use to bring back people from the dead." 

Raymond thought to himself. "Wow, bringing back people from the dead… that sounds pretty nice. Maybe I could use it to—" 

"What happened next?" Raymond asked. 

"After people had learned that he could perform such a feat, some of them became jealous and plotted to steal that power to use it for their own. They succeeded in stealing the device, but the Master Emerald's location remains unknown to this day. Rumors have it that he managed to pass it down before it got into the wrong hands." 

Raymond looked at the diamond hanging around his neck. "So, this is the device? But it's pretty much useless unless you also have the 'Master Emerald", right?" 

The Lady shook her head. "No, it still has some power for the user to remain immortal. If you're killed wearing that, your spirit stays trapped in the diamond, until someone uses it to bring someone to life. Then, they can come back alive as well." 

"Well, I definitely don't want the person I killed to come out of here…" Raymond looked curiously into the reflective surface of the diamond. 

"And that brings me to why you're here. It was long ago prophesized that a young warrior would come to this place wearing that. That he would bring peace and defeat evil. I'll recite the full prophesy to you." 

The Lady cleared her throat, and started to recite. 

"A young warrior with the cross,  
Suffering greatly from his loss,  
Must travel far among the stars,  
Away from home, going far.  
And see his loss repeated twice,  
And be faced with a difficult choice,  
To use the power to save his wife,  
Or will he use it to save another life?  
New friends, he will meet,  
He'll need them to accomplish this feat,  
To battle his traitor brother,

But in the end, he'll lose another." 

The Lady stopped, quiet. Raymond processed this information in his head while Susan approached him. "You can leave if you want now, my teacher needs some time alone now..." 

Raymond followed Susan outside in the glaring sun. 

"Soo… I guess I'm supposed to be a great hero, huh?" Raymond joked lightheartedly. 

Susan turned towards him, amused. "I guess so, I just had to bring you here after seeing that necklace. I hope you weren't busy or anything…." Susan apologized. 

"No, no, don't worry, though I should probably be going. Bye!" Raymond waved, glad to be out of the stuffy basement and out free in the open. Susan stood by her car, and waved back. "I hope he knows what he's doing…." She said to herself… 

After jogging for a few minutes, Raymond slowed to a walk, still inside Woodberry. He thought about what the Lady had said to him. 

"A young warrior with the cross,  
Suffering greatly with his loss…." 

"Hmm…" Raymond thought. "I guess I am a young warrior, and the diamond is in the shape of a cross. I'm also still 'suffering' about Emily's death. He started thinking about Emily again, feeling saddened. 

"But I know that wherever she is, she's proud of me that I'm trying my best to keep my spirits up and not be depressed enough so that I lose motivation to do anything…" 

Raymond smiled, as he started to think about all the good times he had with Emily, as he continued walking… 

Meanwhile… 

Slash was trotting swiftly across a peaceful plain. He had a mission that he intended to complete, or else face Malcolm if he failed. Slash shuddered, remembering what had happened to that unfortunate crow that didn't kill Garry and Luke. Though it was good that they had survived… Both of them were now Malcolm's three top leaders along with him, training his army while recruiting new soldiers. They already had about five thousand healthy infantry men, and more were pouring in everyday… 

Slash could see Woodberry far in the distance. He'd probably reach there in about another hour. Slash picked up his pace, and ran along, thinking only about how he would manage to kill Raymond… 

11:29 am 

It had been about 2 hours after the whole incident with the prophet lady, and Raymond was still thinking about her rhyme. 

"Must travel far among the stars,  
Away from home, going far" 

"Well, I'd like to travel as far away possible from this place before Malcolm catches up to me…" Raymond stared to think while eating a small lunch of bread and cheese he had brought at the local market. While he munched away, he thought "Travelling among the stars, I guess that means some sort of space-travel or something.." Raymond took another bite of his bread. "But I don't have any sort of space-ship…" Then, Raymond realized something. 

"Hey, I remember we had a couple of those in Newark. I never really knew about them, but they were supposed to be for some sort of data-collection stuff." Raymond quickly finished up his lunch with a huge gulp and stood up. "But that'll be pretty hard, Newark's exactly the place I'm running away from. I'll need some sort of plan…" 

Meanwhile: 

Slash had finally found Raymond in this huge crowd of people. Trying his best not to attract attention, Slash fitted a bullet to his handgun, and quietly cocked it, and pointed it Raymond's way, who stood about 50 yards away. Slash smiled grimly. Raymond had no idea what would hit him. 

Raymond suddenly started feeling something was wrong. Very wrong. He immediately tensed up. He had heard the sound of a gun cocking, and started thinking about Malcolm 

"I'll bet he's sent someone to try to assassinate me..." Raymond tried his best to pretend like nothing was wrong, as he guessed that the gun was already pointed his direction… 

Slash waited a few more seconds while he noticed Raymond look confused for a second, but then resume walking slowly as if nothing had happened. 

"Goodbye, Raymond." Slash pulled the trigger as the gun shot out the bullet, speeding over 300 miles an hour towards Raymond's head….


	17. Chapter 17

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 17 

Raymond jumped away not a nanosecond too late. The bullet whizzed over his head, and pounded a hole into a sack of flour laying around nearby. Two more followed in succession, both barely missing Raymond as he ran behind a hot-dog stand, panting. 

"Dang, that was way too close…" Raymond thought to himself. 

After hearing the gun being fired, all of the civilians milling around started to scream, and scattered around in different directions. Already, several guards were headed Slash's way as he was now standing in the middle of the street, exposed. He growled, and hid behind another stand as the guards loaded their rifles and started to shoot at him. 

"Idiots…" Slash muttered. He pulled out a flash grenade and threw over at the guards. A loud BANG ensued, and everything turned white as Slash suddenly ran out from the cart right towards Raymond. 

Raymond was hiding behind his cart when he heard the impact of the flash grenade, and the whole world turned white. As he shielded his smarting eyes, he heard footsteps running towards him as the guards' bullets whizzed by randomly. In a few more seconds, Slash would reach him, and he was unarmed. Raymond needed a plan fast! 

Slash continued running as the effect of the grenade wore away. He could blurrily see the cart right in front of him. As he loaded his gun, he whipped around the corner and pointed at the direction of where he guessed Raymond to be and fired. Except that Raymond wasn't there anymore. 

"Huh?" Slash said as Raymond popped out of the hot-dog ice box on top of the cart and landed an uppercut to his chin, sending him flying backwards. 

"Oof…" Slash collided with the ground as he nicked Raymond's left side with another bullet. Slash quickly scrambled up and Raymond kicked the ice-box towards his direction. Slash did a back flip as the ice-box flew under him, and landed gracefully on his feet. It was right then that a fireball hit him from pointblank right in the gut. Slash flew farther back right into a wall. 

"Ooh…. Burned! Literally!" Raymond joked, then looked back at the guards. They were pretty bad at aiming, but he could tell that they were trying to hit him as well. 

"I'm outta here!" Raymond ran off around a corner at full speed. 

The guards carefully put their guns down. One of them spotted an injured citizen nearby. He walked over to her, and knelt down. 

"Hey, are you okay miss?" The guard asked as the others ran up to him. 

"Yeah… I'm fine.." the girl smiled, then shot all of them in the head. Slash dropped his now empty gun, and transformed back into his real self. 

"Grr… looks like Raymond got away for now…" Slash picked himself up, and casually walked past the corpses of guards lying by. 

Raymond slowed down. It was already noon, and the sun was at full blast. He was sure that it was well over 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Thankfully, the fact that he had the power of controlling fire made it a bit easier to tolerate. 

"So Slash, huh? The renegade shape-shifter?" Raymond asked. "He shouldn't be too hard to handle, I hope…." Raymond continued to walk around in the city aimlessly. "But I can't let him get in my way. I've got to go back to Newark and steal the space-ship!" Raymond eagerly started to make plans on his break-in. 

Somewhere spiritual…. 

Emily smiled. "That's the old Raymond that I know! Brave, very reckless, and fearless…. I hope that he'll be alright…" Emily sighed. 

Another pink fox walked up to her. "Ah, still spying on Raymond I see?" she teased. 

Emily blushed. "Moom!" 

Her mom laughed. "I can see why you admire and like him so much though!" 

"Yeah.." Emily stared off into space dreamily. 

Her mom laughed again. "Well, from what I've seen, he's found something that can help him bring you back to life!" 

"Really?" Emily gasped. "Wow…. Well the first thing that I would do when I came back would be to…." 

Emily and her mom trailed off in conversation while Raymond still wandered around, talking to himself. 

"Hmm….where is Slash right now, anyways?" Raymond wondered. "I'm pretty sure I've lost him back in the center of the city." Raymond grinned. "Well anyways, now that I've formulated my plan, I've got to start heading towards Newark again. It's going to be another long 10 mile walk back…." 

Slash searched around furiously. 

"Dang it! How could I have lost him so fast?" Slash cursed himself. "How can I tell Malcolm?" Slash started to think about all the ways he would be punished. Then, a thought came to his mind. He grinned. "Well, that's not such a bad idea. I might as well give it a shot." Slash ran off…. 

Raymond was leaving Woodberry at that exact moment with his small backpack of meager equipment he carried around. He dumped it on the ground. 

"Hmm…. Food, I'll probably need. Clothes and money as well. He continued searching through the contents when he came upon a vicious looking dagger. 

"What's this?" Raymond asked himself as he turned it over in his hands. "Wait, this is…." Raymond realized that it was the exact same dagger that had killed Emily. He dropped it in shock. Then, he slowly bent down, and picked it up, decided if he really needed it. 

"Well, this really brings back so many bad memories….. but at the same time, I don't want to forget the sacrifice that Emily made for me." Raymond mused. "Anyways, besides, I'm going to bring her back to life, I know it. After stealing the space-ship, I'll search for that Master Emerald and bring her back, I know it!" Raymond said determinedly. He smiled. "I just can't wait until she's back, I miss her so much. Haha, you know actually when she first arrives, I'll pretend to act mad at her that she would kill herself for me, but then when she's not expecting it, I'll give her a big hug and a kiss…" Raymond stared off, dreamily. 

Emily laughed. "Ooh, busted! I know you'd never be mad at me, Raymond. And I can't wait either, I miss you so much too!" 

The two of them continued on in life, still dreaming and thinking about each other….


	18. Chapter 18

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 18  
7:40 pm  
Outside of Newark 

Outside of the walled city, the sun was just about setting, and darkness was coming soon. Most of the inhabitants inside the city (Malcolm's and the Meterex's army) were starting to retire to sleep, leaving only a few guards to patrol around the top of the wall. On a lone hill overlooking Newark behind a huge boulder, crouched a dark red fox. Raymond silently put down his binoculars and pulled out a pen, sketching a few lines and shapes into his notebook lying nearby. He had been patiently waiting outside for hours, hiding behind the boulder until dark came. In the meantime, he had been drawing up his plan of attack and escape, and he was pretty confident that he could rush in, get to the spaceship, and drive out unnoticed. Now all he needed was the sun to go down and just a bit of luck…. 

"Hmm… I see about 20 or so on the top of the wall… about 30 below…" Raymond jotted down a couple of more notes. Stuffing the binoculars and notebook into his backpack, he pulled out a couple of other items. 

"Good thing I kept these from when I served in the Newark army…" Raymond first put on greenish looking goggles, and flicked on the switch on the side of it. The night-vision goggles started to whirr, and showed Raymond the range of objects that he looked at. Next, he pulled out two mechanical wristbands, and strapped them on. They clicked into place as Raymond started to load needle-like bullets into each. Then, Raymond put on a metal belt around his waist, sticking his dagger and a small handgun into it. Finally, Raymond pulled out a longer, but still fairly short close-combat gun. As he stood up, he winced under all of the weight. 

"Wow, I'm pretty out of shape…" he joked. The sun finally finished setting as the brilliant sunset disappeared, leaving the sky all black. Nighttime was here, and Raymond was ready to go. 

As Raymond quietly maneuvered down the side of the hill, he calculated how he was to get in. 

"I don't want to attract attention, so I'll have to try not to use the gun too much… I have to find a way to slip in without killing many people." Raymond thought to himself as he wordlessly crawled through the tall grass that lay to the west side of Newark. Up ahead of him stood 7 guards, and up on top circled 2 more of them. He had chosen this side because it seemed to be the weakest of the four. 

Raymond saw the West door barred by two heavy wooden cross bars, and metal chains criss-crossed on the inside. He looked up into the sky… 

"Well, this is it I guess. It's go time!" Raymond knelt up and pointed his right mechanical wrist band up at the top. He quietly fired 5 needles in quick succession. The two guards barely made a noise as they slumped down, dead. 

As the wristband reloaded itself, Raymond estimated that he would have no more than 30 seconds until the dead guards were noticed. He then pointed his left wristband at the guards on the bottom and began rapidly firing until they were all dead. The needles cut through the air, barely making a sound at all. 

"So far so good…" Raymond thought as he swiftly ran up to the gate and a fireball appeared in his hand. He then punched the gate, making a hollow thud. Hopefully, no one would hear that or give it much consideration, Raymond guessed. The charred wood from the flames broke easily, and Raymond had created a nice-sized hole in the wall after a couple more punches. He quickly slipped inside, kneeling, pointing his gun out in front of him in case there were more guards. Luckily, there wasn't. The whole city seemed to be strangely silent. Raymond looked around cautiously, and lowered his gun. He slowly got up, and checked around again. No guards, no people, nobody at all… This was certainly odd, he thought. He raised both hands and checked the ammo inside his wristbands. The one on the right still had 20 shots while the one of the left had only 6 left. 

"Wow, I got to really work on my aim next time, saves a lot more ammo…" Raymond thought. He began walking around, carefully exploring the city. Surprisingly, the streets weren't covered with the dead bodies of the Newark civilians from yesterday's massacre, but the evidence of war was still here. There were huge craters in the streets, a lot of houses had shattered windows and holes in the walls. Some houses weren't even there, all burned down to the ground. Ashes were the only trace of it. As Raymond walked by Malcolm's and Luke's old house, he noticed that it was still a pile of ashes. Bullet shells littered the gutters and sidewalks, and broken pieces of metal that Raymond found laying around randomly were sometimes still stained with blood. Raymond realized something else surprising. It was only 8:00 pm, most people should still be awake and walking around the city. Newark was usually very active in the night-time, but maybe Malcolm's army wasn't here at all. Or maybe they were all in a different part of the city… 

Raymond suddenly had a thought, and started to pick up his pace. He wandered around the city alleyways, avoiding the main streets, until he got to a very familiar place. As he walked up to  
the front door of his house, he stopped and sighed. He was actually doing pretty well controlling his depression about the loss of Emily, but he didn't know if seeing her again would hurt him or not… 

Raymond pushed open the front door, and deliberately walked down the hallway. He passed by pictures of him and Emily posing, obviously having fun. One of them was from the beach. Another, skiing... He shook his head. Maybe this wasn't good for him after all, maybe he should leave. But he knew he couldn't. He just had to see Emily one more time. As he neared the bedroom door, he held his breath, and whipped around the corner. What he saw took his breath away. 

"Gone?" Raymond said in disbelief. The bed that he had placed Emily in was completely gone, along with Emily herself. He shook his head again. Why on earth would someone take her away? He slowly slumped down alongside the wall, and covered his head with his hands in despair. 

"She's really gone now, for real…." Raymond said sadly, tears starting to form. "I don't know what I was thinking… maybe that seeing her again would bring my spirits up, but someone's taken her away." Raymond lowered his head. 

"But why? What would anyone want with her?" Raymond asked. As he wiped the tears from his face, he suddenly spied a small piece of paper lying beside him. He grabbed it, and folded it open. The writing he immediately recognized to be Jessica's. 

"Jessica? She was here?" Raymond began scanning the rest of the note… 

Dear Raymond, 

I'm so sorry for your loss… I know Emily meant so much to you, so much in fact that you were willing to join the Newark Army to protect the city and her, even though you detest fighting. But even that wasn't enough. I've noticed you taking her out everywhere, doing the best that you could to make her happy. From the beginning, when you first arrived here, after I adopted you into our family, I saw that you two immediately took a liking to each other. Over the years, that's been developing, to the point that you finally proposed, and she accepted without a doubt I'm sure. I saw the ring on her hand so I know… I had just gotten back from my mission when I decided to come over to your house. But I was too late. I had just arrived when I looked through the window to see Emily sacrifice her life for you. I should have done something… I KNOW I could have… but I didn't. I was the one that failed you, Raymond. And I'm so sorry. I don't deserve to be around you anymore. I'm leaving, running off away from all this. I know Malcolm's behind this all, but I'm not strong enough to fight him. After seeing Emily die, I'm done with fighting. So I've taken a space-ship and I'm going to journey out far away. And as the least I can do, I've also taken Emily with me. I'm planning to bury her far away from this twisted place, on a lone planet. Back before you came, Emily was always badgering me about exploring out in space. And now, she's finally where she's wanted to be, but too late. And even though I might feel terribly sad, I can't even imagine how you might be feeling. I could see that you two loved each other so much. And I didn't do a thing when you guys were in danger. So please Raymond, forgive me… 

~Your sister, Jessica… 

Raymond slowly put down the note. He leaned back, and sighed. Then, he got up, and looked out the window, smiling. 

"You're right, I miss Emily A LOT. But none of it was your fault. You don't have to blame yourself. If it was anyone's fault, it's all mine. I wasn't strong enough when I had to be to protect Emily. But now I'm not as sad as before. Because I know that even without Emily, I still have such a great sister that cares so much about me. It's true that I loved Emily so much, and I am still heartbroken inside. But I still have you left, and that's still reason enough to keep fighting for what's right and good. And thanks, for taking her away… I'm sure she would have loved it…" Raymond trailed off. 

"Now I need YOU back Jessica. Without you, I have nothing left… But until you return or I find you, I'll keep on going till I defeat Malcolm for everything he's done. 

Raymond slowly turned back inside, and shouldered his gun. Taking what he knew to be his last look into his house, he finally slipped outside into the cool summer night.


	19. Chapter 19

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 19  
8:10 pm  
Newark 

As Raymond was just leaving his house, he heard the alarm sound. In the distance, he heard guards shouting orders and the sound of heavy footsteps stomping all around the city. So there were people here, all intent on killing him he was sure. Raymond slipped into a nearby alleyway and continued his search for the Newark Central Office. 

NEWARK CENTRAL OFFICE: 

Malcolm sat quietly at his desk, drumming his fingers. A couple of his guards had reports of several of their comrades being killed, and they suspected an intruder inside the city walls. Malcolm grinned evilly. 

"Raymond, no doubt. I don't know what he wants, but I'm sure he probably wants to kill me." Malcolm thought to himself. "Though he'll have to pass all our defenses… And then there's the matter of…" Malcolm reached for his phone, and dialed a number. His secretary on the other end answered. 

"Tell Garry and Luke to come up here quickly." Malcolm ordered. 

In a minute, Garry and Luke stood before him, in full combat gear. Malcolm smiled, and explained. 

"Now, we have a bit of a situation here. Raymond's broken in, and I'll bet he intends to kill us all. So I want you two to find him and personally kill HIM instead. Am I clear?" Malcolm asked. 

Garry saluted. "Yes sir! You can trust me to bring him to justice after killing all the innocent citizens." Garry sharply turned around and left. 

Malcolm turned to Luke. "And you?"

"Well…"

Malcolm looked sharply at Luke. "Well… what?"

"I don't-"

"You don't what? You're not too weak for this kind of action are you now?"

Luke sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I'll kill him if I get the chance." Luke left reluctantly. 

Malcolm leaned back in his chair and relaxed. Luke probably wouldn't try to look for him, but Garry would most likely hunt Raymond down until either one of them died. 

Raymond had just reached the outside of the Newark Central Office. He had mainly been able to slip by and avoid most guards, though he'd had to use a couple of his needle bullets to take some out. His left wrist band was completely out of ammo, and his right one had only 10 shots remaining. He hadn't used his rifle or handgun though, which had 36 and 6 shots respectively. And then he had the dagger… So there was really no need to worry. Besides, he wasn't really trying to actively kill people. 

Raymond ran up to the wall of the office, and began silently sliding along it towards the back. At least 500 guards stood assembled in the front, and he had seen a few of Malcolm's commanders with turrets and rocket launchers. Best not to mess with them… Raymond knew that the space-ship was located in the basement of the office building, but there was no door in the back. He had to go inside through a window. Raymond looked up, seeing many of them with lights turned on. He had to slip in unnoticed, so the closet one without a light on was on the sixth floor. He slipped his rifle over his shoulder, using a shoulder strap, and stepped back a few yards. Then, he ran at full speed into the wall, and at the last second, agilely jumped up several feet on the wall. His fingers scrabbled around, trying to find secure finger holds, while his feet rested on the bar above the first floor window. Using small cracks in the surface of the building, Raymond started his along climb up, snaking his way between the windows that had light shining through the blind-folds. 

"Don't look down…. Don't look down…." Raymond kept telling himself as he made his way to the fourth floor. He looked up ahead. The target window was only about 20 more feet above him. Gritting his teeth, Raymond continued his treacherous climb. Once or twice, one of his hands might suddenly give away, leaving him hanging on to dear life with the other hand as he tried to maintain his balance. Finally, he made it to the window. Leveling himself up, he used the mechanical wristband to smack the window, shattering it. He jumped up into the room, and started to run down the hallway towards the stairs. 

Luke, heading down to the fourth floor sharply turned around. He had heard the noise of glass breaking, and ran back up the stairs to investigate. As he opened the door, he came face to face with Raymond… 

Raymond almost ran right into Luke as he ran along the fifth floor hallway. He jumped back, startled. Then, he smiled. 

"Hey Luke! What brings you here?" Raymond grinned. Suddenly, he saw Luke's face contort.

"I… can't do this… but I won't… I'm not weak…" Luke muttered under his breath in thought.

"Luke?" Raymond casually asked. 

"Raymond!" Luke hissed. Luke drew out a sword from behind his back, and held it threateningly towards Raymond. "Don't make me kill you!" 

Raymond looked confused. "Kill me, what do you mean? It's Malcolm, I've figured it out! He's been the one-" Raymond was cut off as Luke used the hilt of the sword to smack Raymond in the stomach, knocking the air out of Raymond. Raymond gasped for breath, doubled over as Luke karate kicked him in the head, spinning him yards backwards. As Raymond lay painfully on the ground, Luke explained. 

"I'm sorry it has to be this way Raymond. Malcolm's told me everything, how you betrayed us all, killing those innocent people." Luke held out one hand. 

Raymond rolled around on the ground, groaning. "What? I didn't do any of that! It was all Malcolm, he's the one!" 

Luke shook his head. "Don't lie to me, Raymond. From the beginning, it was YOU after all! You tricked us into believing Malcolm was in the wrong, when he was in reality on our side." 

Raymond slowly got up, clutching his stomach. He growled. "Well then, if you're going to side with Malcolm, then looks like I'll have to take you down too!" Raymond shot a huge blast of fire, which Luke quickly countered, shooting a beam of frost and ice. The two of them met in the middle, as Raymond's fire was put out, and Luke's ice was turned into steam. Luke then shot another beam of snow, missing as Raymond leaped out of the way. As Luke kept firing beam after beam, Raymond blasted them all away with fire. The two of them circled dangerously, looking for a weakness in each other's defenses. Luke managed to punch Raymond in the side of the head, making Raymond start to see painful stars. Raymond then finally gashed Luke along the side of his arm with his dagger, drawing blood. The two of them parted away, fists clenched, teeth bared.

"Haha, you really think you can beat ice with fire?" Luke challenged, blasting another beam of ice into the nearby wall as Raymond rolled out of the way. He quickly stood up again, cocking his head to one side.

"And you really think you can keep up with this heat?" Raymond countered, grinning to himself. Both of them charged again at each other. Luke threw a punch aimed at Raymond's face. Raymond, seeing it, instinctively threw one hand up to block it, and Luke's fist painfully collided with his mechanical wrist band. Luke yelped, and drew his fist back, holding it in pain.

Raymond stepped back as well, panting. He knew he was pretty tired, but he couldn't let that stop him. As Luke recovered himself, Raymond circled around him, tensed up. Luke yelled out, and threw another punch, which Raymond motioned to block once again. Except at the last second, Luke opened his fist and frost shot out right at Raymond's unprotected side. Raymond felt immense cold and numbness as the ice made contact, partially freezing him. He tried his best to duck out of the way as Luke brought his foot up, but couldn't, and Luke kicked Raymond in the chest, pushing him over. As Raymond fell over on the ground, side still frozen, Luke smiled grimly.

"Well well, what do you know? Looks like Raymond's been playing around with the wrong person, and got himself in trouble." Luke confidently strode over to Raymond, hands out in ready stance. His smile suddenly twisted into a gape as Raymond amazingly did a flip to propel himself to his feet, and then shot a huge stream of flames at Luke. Luke shielded his face as the flames raged on around him, trying his best to counter with ice and snow.

"Well well what do YOU know? Looks like someone played with fire and got himself BURNED!" As the battle wore on, Raymond was aware that he couldn't stay and fight. He had a mission to do, and Luke was blocking his way. Raymond kept on edging towards the door towards escape, while Luke was pushing him back. Finally at one point, Luke overextended on his attempt to punch Raymond in the stomach. As Luke was fully extent and his head was lowered, Raymond jumped up high, way over Luke. He then hit the ground running, leaving Luke in the dust. As Raymond bolted out the door, Luke slowly turned around, angrily. 

"I'll be back, you be sure of it Raymond!" Luke shouted after him. 

Raymond breathed with relief as he left Luke behind. He headed down the floors: fourth, third, second, first. Finally, he reached the basement. Instead of the walls beings made from plaster, they were now made from stainless steel. The steps felt cold underneath his feet as he began his descent. As he started down, he noticed sometime wrong. Sand was leaking out of the door at the bottom of the stairs. Raymond cautiously continued making his way down, and then flung open the door. In the large garage/basement, Garry stood a ways back, arms crossed. His eyes were bloodshot, and his hands were clenched in fury. He looked up at Raymond, full of malice and hatred. Then, his lips twitched in a smirk. 

"So, Raymond. It's do or die. I'm not going to stop fighting until I'm dead or I kill you. Ready to be buried alive? IT ENDS HERE TONIGHT!" Garry shouted as sand flew up from the ground and swirled around Raymond….


	20. Chapter 20

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 20  
NEWARK CENTRAL OFFICE BASEMENT 

As sand swirled around Raymond, trapping him inside a tornado-like structure, the red fox shielded himself with his hands. A blazing inferno wrapped around him in retaliation, blasting through the sand wall. The sand fell away harmlessly as Raymond pulled out his rifle, aiming it at Garry. 

"I'll shoot you if you come any closer!" Raymond threatened loudly while Garry merely smirked. 

"You wouldn't. You're weak inside." Garry laughed evilly, and took another step forward as Raymond cocked the gun. 

"I'm warning you!" Raymond shouted ominously, but to no avail as Garry took another step, then another, until he was only ten feet in front of Raymond. As Raymond moved his finger closer to the trigger, Garry stared down into the barrel of the rifle, raising one hand. 

"Garry, listen to me! Malcolm's lying to you! He's the one who betrayed us all!" Raymond tried to plead his case to a stoic Garry, but the brown fox shook his head in response. 

"Malcolm's told me everything, you traitor!" Garry retaliated angrily. "I'll kill you!" 

"Don't you see?" Raymond continued to try to persuade his brother. "He's turned us against each other! Look at you! Soon, he'll destroy everything in his conquest to whatever goal he's trying to reach. And he doesn't care who he uses to steps over!" He desperately tried to convince Garry again, but to the same result as before. 

"LIAR!" Garry yelled in rage. He suddenly sprayed a blast of sand at the rifle barrel, plugging it as the gun exploded in Raymond's hands, and debris whipped at his unprotected body. A splinter from the barrel buried itself deep in Raymond's left hand, as he yelled in pain. Garry on the other hand raised up a sand wall, protecting himself. As he let it die away, he noticed Raymond kneeling on the ground, various wounds all over his body bleeding. Garry smirked. Raymond was finished. He threw his arms up to the heavens while Raymond wordlessly suffered, and all the sand from the floor around the side began to rise, threatening to engulf Raymond in the middle. 

"Ughh.." Raymond moaned, noticing what Garry was trying to do, but couldn't stop it as he was beat up pretty badly, and wasn't sure if he could take any more. Maybe he should just accept defeat… just end it all… the pain… the suffering… 

"NO!" Raymond suddenly shouted as Garry prepared to finish him off. He thought about all the things he was fighting for; revenge against Malcolm, Emily's death, Jessica tired of fighting. He was the last soldier left opposing Malcolm! This is what Emily sacrificed her life for him to do! He had to rise up, and fight for everything and everyone left! He was the last one, the last hero of Newark! 

As the sand swarmed all over Raymond, he got up, and stared down the dumbfounded Garry in the face. Raymond then whipped back one hand, and punched Garry right in the nose, causing him to stumble backwards and the sand to disperse once more. As Garry tried to get back up, his nose bleeding freely, Raymond coughed up all the sand he had swallowed, his open wounds stinging from the sand that had gotten inside of them. Garry yelled furiously, and charged at Raymond, who ducked, and used Garry's momentum to flip him over on his back. Garry hit the concrete floor head on, and lay there, dazed while Raymond staggered backwards, his head still reeling, and pointed his right wrist band at Garry. 

"Don't…don't…make me…" Raymond looked at his wrist band again. It was cracked in half. Disgusted, Raymond flung it off his wrist, and pulled out his handgun. That too, was stuffed full of sand, rendering it impossible to use. Raymond tossed that away, and pulled out the dagger, which was still intact. As Garry slowly got up, teeth bared, Raymond circled around him, pointed the dagger in his direction. 

"I'll do whatever it takes to bring you down, Raymond!" Garry menaced. 

Raymond on the other hand remained silent. There was no reasoning with Garry at the moment anyways. He thought about Emily, the way she smiled at him while she blocked the path of the dagger with her own body… all the agony of losing her right after she had accepted his proposal… Raymond had truly believed that they were really going to share a peaceful and long life together, but it wasn't so… Then Jessica… blaming herself for Emily's death… Raymond felt a pang of sympathy and sadness inside of him. He was half-dead, but still fighting… Raymond started to feel his vision blacken at the edges… started to feel numbness racing up and down his body… started to feel unbearably tired… But then he knew… It was here where heroes separated themselves from ordinary soldiers! It was when defeat was inevitable, when the whole world felt like it was turned against you, that you were on the brink of death, when you had to push yourself and fight harder than ever. Raymond felt pain in his right cheek as Garry clipped him upside the head.. vision blacking out….. no more pain… just numb.. 

Garry stood over the defeated Raymond, who was lost in his own thoughts. He leered at the red fox's pitiful attempts to get back up on his feet, feeling a surge of confidence once again. As Garry walked over to Raymond to kick him again in the head, suddenly, Raymond felt inhuman strength rushing back into his broken body. Raymond stood up quickly, recovered, and grabbed Garry's head. Raymond then pulled Garry's head down, kneeing it, before letting Garry go and smashing him with a round-house punch. Garry toppled over, knocked out cold, as Raymond stood over Garry's unconscious body, feeling cold and numb. This isn't what being a hero felt like; Raymond instead felt as if he was desperately trying to survive and claw his way towards Malcolm. 

He wasn't a real hero, no… But he would keep on fighting for what he considered 'good'. Raymond took one long last look around the place, before clambering into the cockpit of the space-ship. As he started up the engines, and started moving along a narrow runway straight ahead, he thought back about his memories of the place. Mostly they had been about his years serving in the army and time spent having fun with Emily and his siblings, but it was mostly just all memories now in the face of Emily's death, Jessica running away, Malcolm's betrayal, and Garry's and Luke's turn against him. So much had changed in just a few days. He could barely remember what he did the day before the meeting that changed his world around. Raymond shook his head as if to clear his mind. So much of his past seven years had been good and happy, but all those years of building up good memories had just been torn down by the recent tragedies. That was probably what he was going to remember Newark from now on, the lowest point of his life, despite it also being the pinnacle. Best to just leave it all behind… 

Raymond blasted off away into the space ahead, leaving Newark behind, for good.


	21. Chapter 21

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 21  
9:03 am  
Somewhere in space… 

Raymond zoomed past as he narrowly navigated the space-ship through little bits of asteroids and meteors. It had been about twelve hours since his departure from Newark last night, and he had been on the controls for the entire time. Unfortunately, they didn't have an auto-pilot, so Raymond had to keep himself focused and awake…

The good thing was that first of all, most of his wounds and injuries had healed. Raymond had also found fresh water and food in the ship's fridge, along with a map, that happened to be just a little bit outdated. But Raymond didn't really need a map anyways. He was just fine with travelling wherever he felt like. Only one thing was on his mind… 

"The Master Emerald… I've got to find that so I can bring Emily back!" Raymond muttered to himself, half-awake. His eyelids were slowly slipping closed, and he felt incredibly tired. He hadn't gotten any rest since when he had slept in that field outside of Woodberry… 

Around him, hazardous chunks of rocks still zoomed past him, some dangerously close. Raymond started to nod off, trying his best to pay attention to driving, but could barely even focus, only driven on by willpower and the desire to bring back his loved one alone… He needed to sleep soon. Or rather, he needed to find a place to stop and sleep. Raymond tried his best to keep his eyes wide open and try to be aware of his surroundings. Planets rushed by him at high velocities, but he took no notice of them. Finally, there! In the distance lay a bright neon sign that read: "Chaotix Café" or something of the sort, though Raymond was too tired to care what it said. He maneuvered his ship towards that direction, grateful he had made it this far without crashing at the condition he was in at the moment. 

"Hopefully," Raymond thought to himself as he lowered himself through the atmosphere. "I could ask if I could stay there for the night. Or rather the morning…" As his ship approached the small planet, he checked his fuel tank. It was still fairly full, so he really didn't have much to worry about. He just needed a nice, long rest…. 

He parked his ship in the back, and hopped out right away. However, as Raymond took his first step, he almost tumbled to the ground; his legs feeling like wobbly jelly, barely able to keep them balance himself. 

"Travelling on a space-ship for long periods of time is really hard to get used to…" he noticed tiredly as he took another uncomfortable, treacherous step. 

Raymond finally made his way to the front door and pushed it open, almost keeling over as the door swung ajar. He was immediately greeted with loud noises of chatter and music, and the sight of people everywhere, all drinking and eating various items from the menu. On the far corner, a green crocodile was playing a tune on the piano, and a purple lizard ("Chameleon?" Raymond thought to himself.) was cleaning dirty glasses and serving at the bar. A bumble-bee was buzzing around, bringing the drinks to each table. On the far wall, stood a wanted poster, but Raymond didn't take notice of it. He walked tiredly over to the purple chameleon, as Espio glanced at Raymond curiously, then nodded towards the menu lying to the side of him. 

"What do you want?" Espio casually asked, ready to serve another potential customer. 

"Uhh…" Raymond took a quick glance at the menu. "I'll take a cup of coffee." He dully answered, resting head his on one hand. 

As Espio poured the coffee, Raymond suddenly asked him. "Can I speak to the person in charge here?" He hoped that he might be able to bargain with the owner if they let him sleep somewhere. Even a dark closet seemed appealing at he moment… 

Espio pointed towards the green crocodile while he got the coffee prepared. "That'll be Vector over there." He answered, handing Raymond the coffee "And that'll be-" 

"It's on the house, Espio." Vector called over, still playing a tune on the piano. 

Espio frowned, shrugged, and shook his head. "I don't know how we'll stay in business this way…" He muttered to himself while Raymond gratefully took the coffee and got up. 

Vector continued playing the piano while Raymond walked over to him, sipping from his coffee. "Whaddya want?" The crocodile asked curiously. 

"Are you in charge of this place?" Raymond inquisitively asked in response. 

In return, Vector cleared his throat importantly. "Yes, I am in fact!" He stopped playing the piano long enough to attempt to put on a business like face, pulling out a pair of sunglasses from his pocket. "You're speaking to the HEAD of this place, young sir!" 

"Uhh.." Raymond just stood there while confused at Vector's antics. "Well do you mind if I could stay here for a few hours. You see, I've been driving for-" As he prepared to explain his long story, Raymond took a closer look at the wanted poster. It was just a bunch of other animals he wouldn't have thought much about, but one of them looked a bit familiar. Raymond pointed at them, indicating for Vector to have a look. 

"Who are they?" Raymond asked Vector curiously, who in return looked back at Raymond with a strange expression. 

"What does it matter to you?" Vector asked in suspicion. If this guy was with Eggman or the Meterex… 

Raymond pointed at the yellow fox. "Him…. He looks sort of familiar…" He tried to explain where his familiarity was coming from. 

Vector looked back and forth from the picture of Tails to Raymond. "Yeah, you're right, you two DO look rather similar…" 

Raymond shook his head. "No, I mean… there's more of us foxes… it's just that I think I know him from somewhere…" 

Vector was surprised at Raymond's answer. "You know Tails?" He asked intriguingly, leaning back in the piano bench, one hand under his chin. 

Raymond also leaned back in thought. "Tails… hmm… that somehow sounds oddly familiar…" He tried to piece together his broken memories… Maybe he had heard that name a long time ago? 

Vector shrugged casually. "Well, if you're a friend of Tails, then you're a friend of ours! You can stay here as long as you'd like!" He enthusiastically replied. 

Raymond grinned in reply. "Cool, thanks!" Then, he noticed something as his grin faded. "But why do you have him on a wanted poster if he's your friend?" 

"Uhh.." Vector tried to explain. "One of our enemies, the Meterex, has been fighting us for a while now. They're looking for Sonic and his friends because they keep messing up the Meterex's plans…" 

Raymond thought hard as he recognized another familiar term. "The Meterex…? I think I've heard of them too…" Then it hit him. Malcolm's allies! Why were they out here in space? Were they hunting him down? 

Vector chuckled. "Wow, you're full of surprises! You know the Meterex too? Maybe you could help us fight them too!" 

Raymond nodded slowly, still shaken at the fact that the Meterex were already after him. "Yeah… I'd like that…" Obviously revenge was on his mind. 

Suddenly, the red fox yawned as a result of his tiredness, which he had almost forgotten over the course of their conversation. "Wow, I'm really tired…" He mumbled to himself. 

Vector got up, leading the way courteously. "Here, you can sleep upstairs." Vector led Raymond up the stairs to a small attic, where there was a small blanket and a pillow lying in the corner. At the moment, it seemed like heaven to Raymond 

"Don't worry about the cost, it's all free for anyone on our side." Vector reminded Raymond as he thanked Vector. As Vector headed back downstairs to close up the shop, Raymond plopped on the blanket and tried to go to sleep. He planned to nap for a few hours, get back up, leave, and go search for Tails, whoever he was… finally falling into a long, deep sleep, exhausted. Tomorrow was another day anyways…


	22. Chapter 22

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 22  
Newark 

Malcolm was furious. Not only had Raymond escaped with the last space-ship remaining, but his friends, the Meterex, had mysteriously deserted him. Luke and Garry stood on either side of him as he stood on a balcony above his gathered army. Garry had blood all over his head, and bruises were evident everywhere, while on the other hand, Raymond had appeared to cook Luke "well-done"; burns were running up and down his body in frequent areas. 

"Pitiful, just pitiful…" Malcolm thought to himself silently. He glared down at his assembled army of no more than seven thousand soldiers; all well equipped and ready to fight. But the Meterex wasn't a HUGE loss. Sure, they would have been nice allies, but Malcolm didn't really trust Dark Oak very much… 

"LAST NIGHT, OUR MOST HATED ENEMY, RAYMOND PROLLE HAS ESCAPED!" Malcolm boomed out to the silenced yet eager crowd of villains. "OUR FRIENDS HERE," Malcolm apathetically motioned to Garry and Luke on either side of him. "HAVE FAILED TO DEFEAT HIM, AND WERE DEFEATED IN RETURN! BUT," and here Malcolm paused dramatically. "THAT IS OF NO IMPORTANCE NOW! RAYMOND WILL KEEP RUNNING, AND WE WILL KEEP SEARCHING, TRAVELLING ACROSS THE GALAXY, CONQUERING AND DEFEATING OTHER PLANETS UNTIL WE FINALLY ARE THE GREATEST ARMY EVER! WE WILL RULE THE GALAXY WITH AN IRON FIST, CRUSHING THOSE WHO RESISTANCE OUR INCREDIBLE POWER!" Malcolm stopped to survey the silenced crowd with a feeling of power and pride. "I WANT FIVE HUNDRED SPACE-SHIPS BUILT BY THE END OF THIS MONTH, ALL READY TO GO INTO SPACE AND ABLE TO CARRY OUR ENTIRE ARMY!" Malcolm demanded in a proclaiming tone of voice. As his engineers and mechanics hurriedly rushed to start their enormous project, he turned around swiftly inside, flanked by Garry and Luke. As Malcolm seated himself behind his neat desk, he first turned to Luke, glaring. 

"Tell me, how did he beat you?" Malcolm asked, trying his best to hold back his surmounting anger.

Luke grimaced pitifully. "I WAS beating him, but the coward jumped over me and escaped by running out the exit door!" He tried to explain his excuse at letting the red fox escape, but to no avail. 

Malcolm scowled in contempt, but turned his attention to Garry. "And enlighten me, how on earth did he beat you, after Luke so generously weakened him for you!" Malcolm shouted, enraged. 

Garry looked down at the ground wordlessly. "I… don't know…." He admitted, but slowly looked up; full of silent fury. "But... I swear, next time I find him, I'll rip his head clear off!" Garry swore solemnly, placing one hand over his heart. 

Malcolm on the other hand had finally succeeded in calming himself down and nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I guess I can't blame you two… besides, we're siblings after all, and we forgive each other.." Malcolm lied in disdain. "But next time, do not fail me!" 

Garry and Luke saluted. "No sir! We will hunt Raymond down until our dying breath!" They were dismissed by Malcolm, and as they briskly left the room, he sat back in his chair, rubbing his temples with his index finger. Raymond was just a nuisance, not much more. But Malcolm knew that he would be back for revenge, no doubt. Raymond would have to be dealt with before he became a serious threat. In the meanwhile, Malcolm would keep on building his army. They had already conquered Woodberry easily this morning, and were continuously stretching their influence among the planet. People all over the world were either joining their army in fear, or running to the ends of the continent. Just then, Malcolm remembered something. He quickly pulled out his phone, and dialed someone in a hurry. 

"Yeah, bring them on to the testing room, I'll be there in a few moments..." Malcolm smartly requested as he slammed the phone down, and walked over to the hallway outside. He appeared to walk into the wall, but in reality it was a hidden elevator, camouflaged by the wall's design. He stepped inside and glanced at the keys on the side. Scowling to himself, Malcolm pushed the button underneath the one labeled "Basement", and the elevators closed and began its descent.

Finally, a minute later, it opened, revealing a medium sized room with metallic boundaries. The walls were completely white, and half of it was separated by a glass wall that had a metal door in the side of it to give access to either side of the room. Malcolm casually glanced to one side, and looked at the several animals standing there, remembering his discovery during the conquest. A few days ago, one by one, these beings had willingly requested to join his army, being mutants like Malcolm and his brothers in the way they possessed "special" powers…

One of them, his secretary, hurried over to him, and bowed.

"Sire, we have brought them as you requested. Here are the notes and backgrounds on them." Malcolm's secretary handed him a clipboard, full with sheets of papers with text on them. Malcolm readily accepted them from him, and thoughtfully looked it over. He glanced at the first figure on the paper.

The first animal, a sickly-green-colored stoat stepped forward, taking a cue from the secretary to begin his initial performance testing, as Malcolm wouldn't let just anyone join his army. All members of his army had to pass some sort of physical test in order to determine if they contained the ability to become a warrior.

While Malcolm continued scanning the papers, the stoat walked over to the metal door, yanked it open, and walked into the other half of the room, the door silently shutting behind him in the process. In the back hung several life-sized dummies, all of which were blank and lifeless in form. The stoat strode over and pulled one out, setting it in the middle of the room. Malcolm meanwhile glanced up from his clipboard as his secretary began briefing him about the stoat.

"His calls himself Sludge," The secretary started to talk to Malcolm while Sludge started to prepare himself for the assessment. "He grew up in the city slums where he quickly learned the art of fighting and joined various street gangs. Later in life, he founded many organizations that dealt in terrorist and illegal activities. However, on a mission to Newark at night, he was caught by the city guard, and they chased him around the city until he tried to escape by hiding in a sewage/waste management facility. Coincidentally, they were running tests that night, and he was trapped in the middle of a test that involved using biohazard materials to help remove waste. Amazingly, he survived, and after that incident, he found as a result that he had this "special talent". He continued his career as an insurgent, and has been charged with multiple accounts of homicide…"

As the secretary finished his explanation, Malcolm looked up from the sheets of paper and nodded. "Proceed…" He ordered pointedly.

Sludge raised his hands, and a foul-smelling substance flew shot out, whirling around. It constantly pounded the dummy, engulfing and smothering it in the sticky substance, until finally Malcolm stopped him, satisfied with the results. 

"Next," Malcolm ordered for the next animal to switch places. 

Sludge nodded, and walked out of the room. A brown grizzly bear wordlessly stepped forward into the room, and followed the same procedure Sludge did by placing a dummy in the middle of the room while Malcolm's secretary began speaking again.

"His name is Juggernaut, and he claims to be a traveler from the arctic northern countries. As a result of some genetic mutation, he has developed a strange power that has enabled him to control the surrounding rock-forms in his general vicinity. Labeled as an "outcast" by his village because of this and his mental shortcomings, he has run away and traveled to many places all over the world…"

Juggernaut growled and gestured with his massive hands. As he did so, sharp stalagmites of rock rose out of the floor, and completely impaled the dummy. 

"Next," The stalagmites sank back in the floor, and Juggernaut switched places with a silver cat. She followed the exact same procedure as the previous two had, and stood by, patiently waiting.

"Her name is Metal. She was a previous "pirate/corsair" Captain whose fleet of stolen Navy ships terrorized the eastern cities with their brilliant tactics and quick invasions. At birth however, she was gifted with the talent to "control" specific atomic bonds in the structures of all metals, rendering her the power to bend and twist anything metal. After a storm at sea killed most of her crew and shipwreck her on the south-western border twenty miles away from Newark, she left sailing, where she stands today…"

Hearing the secretary finish, Metal took that as a cue to proceed, and raised her hands, as the metal dummy started to crack and bend, rolling itself up into a tight ball. 

"Next," A reddish hedgehog stepped into the room as Malcolm once again scanned the information sheet while listening to the background story. 

"Flash, he calls himself. He used to serve in the Newark Army for three years and was promoted to the rank of captain, before he quit mysteriously. Your brother," Here Malcolm grimaced a little bit. "Captain Raymond took his place while he left, joining forces with you, if you remember, and the infamous Southern Invaders to try to infiltrate Newark. As I recall, the two of you became close friends, plotting to destroy the city you were once raised from. Unfortunately, both of you were separated after a recent battle in which they were thwarted by Raymond…"

Malcolm's and Flash's eyes met briefly as they looked at each other and nodded, passing a silent greeting. This time though, Flash didn't get a dummy from the back, but instead teleported around the room quickly. Then, he ran at super speed in circles, faster than Malcolm could see with his eyes. 

"Next," 

As Flash stepped out of the room, Malcolm took the effort to walk over and shake hands with his former companion.

"Good to have you back, Flash…" Malcolm greeted formally, while Flash smirked and replied. "Likewise…"

In the meantime, a gray weasel with an eye patch stepped into the room, obtaining the dummy from the back.

" He calls himself Needler, and was once part of a band of rogue robbers that resides in the countryside, terrorizing travelers and hikers. He has the ability to make needle-like bullets "shoot" out of his hands. After an accident however where one of his needles ricocheted into one of his eyes, he resigned from his band, and has lived in the woods by himself."

Needler raised his hands, and long, sharp needles seemed to shoot out everywhere at random, embedding themselves into the dummy as Malcolm watched on, calculating. 

"Next," 

Finally, a black rat stepped forward into the room as Needler walked out.

"I believe his name is Gravity, sir. Much is unknown about him, though he came to Woodberry a long time ago from a distant country. He calls himself a "wizard" after discovering his special powers many years ago. He has used it to perform magic tricks, until discovering another use for it. After a failed attempt at assassinating the mayor, he avoided capture, and his location has been unknown to this day…"

Gravity raised his hands. Suddenly the dummy fell to the ground, as if an unbearable force was pushing down on it. Then, suddenly, it lifted into the air, floating about weightlessly. Finally, it was brought down again, smashing into several pieces. 

As Gravity lowered his hands and stepped out of the room, Malcolm motioned for everyone to stand in a line while he handed the notes into the hands of his secretary, and started to talk to his recruits.

"You all have been recruited specifically for your special powers and your love for fighting and war. If you choose to join my army, you will receive great rewards and riches. If not, then I will let you peacefully leave. Anyone who does not want to become a part of this, step forward."

No one so much as moved a muscle. Malcolm slightly nodded and cleared his throat.

"Your purpose is to join me on my conquest to conquer distant lands and planets, while tracking down my traitor brother. Anyone who has decided that they do not want to join, step forward."

Again, no one moved a muscle. 

"And what is your purpose?" Malcolm asked them inquiringly as they spoke in unison. 

"To serve you, to defeat our enemies, and to hunt down Raymond!" They saluted. 

Malcolm nodded, and cracked a smirk. Where Garry and Luke might have failed, he was sure the six in front of him would not. 

"You will all be made my commanders, along with the other two pitiful excuses for fighters you may have passed on your way down. Each of you will be assigned a tenth of the total size of the army, which at the moment means each of you are now under the control of seven hundred well-trained soldiers. You will have the permission to appoint your own captains and other officers from your own division." As he explained the customary rules laid out for officers of his massive army, Malcolm looked among the group, then rested his eyes on Flash. 

"Commander Flash, you will have the honor of being the first to pursue Raymond into space with your army once your space-ships are built. Am I clear?" 

Flash nodded and saluted, almost mockingly. "Of course sir, I'll make sure he'll be dealt with!" He replied willingly as he left the room. 

Malcolm looked at the other commanders after Flash had left, eyeing to see what part they would play in his scheme. "The rest of you, take your own divisions. Your will all go in separate directions across the planet, destroying all the cities you want and taking all of their riches. But try to recruit as much soldiers as possible. We want to have the BEST army ever in the entire world. All new soldiers must be sent to me first immediately. Is THAT clear?" Malcolm asked demandingly. 

They all saluted. "Yes sir!" Then, as Malcolm dismissed them all, for the first time in a while, he laughed to himself. 

"Raymond, I hope you're prepared. You'll need all the luck you're going to get if you're even going to have a CHANCE at surviving my wrath!" 

Malcolm headed back inside, starting to draw up battle plans for conquering nearby cities as he heard the sound of his workers building the new space-ships. He smiled. It was going to be all over soon.


	23. Chapter 23

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 23  
12:23 pm 

Raymond scratched his face, and slowly woke up, aware of talking in the background. He blurrily took in his surroundings, remembering that he was in the attic of the Chaotix Café and not back on Newark. Raymond was feeling much better now; still a bit tired, but definitely refreshed after the well-deserved rest. He yawned loudly and stretched his arms. Today, he planned to find Tails and the Master Emerald… 

"Hmm…" Raymond scratched his chin as he shifted on the wooden floor. "I should probably ask Vector about the Master Emerald, he might know about it.." 

The red fox neatly folded the blanket, tucked it under one arm, and headed down the stairs, wondering what would greet his eyes. Surprisingly however, he saw the Chaotix packing their spacecraft, no more customers in sight. 

"What's going on?" Raymond asked them, curious as to what was going on and why the normally busy café was empty. 

Vector stopped stuffing a few more bags in the trunk of their space-ship long enough to blurt out a reply. "Well, we're going to help Sonic, wanna come?" He asked, then proceeded to go back to packing. 

Raymond shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, sure." He apathetically replied, as he suddenly remembered something. "Hey, do any of you know anything about something called a 'Master Emerald'?" He approached the three of them, wondering if they would have the answer to his question. 

Vector slowly nodded. "Yeah, you see, Tails' huge space-ship, the Blue Typhoon, is being powered by it. I would know, since I looked around a bit while helping repair our spaceship…"

Espio rolled his eyes. "You mean, when we were on that failed love mission…"

"Huh?" Raymond asked in confusion as Vector immediately motioned for Espio to be quiet.

"Shut up! Stop compromising our missions!" He shouted to the purple chameleon, then turned back to answer Raymond with a nervous expression on his face. "Well, we think they might need our help, so we're going to help them! There shouldn't be any questions when your friends are in danger!" The crocodile rushed over to the trunk, throwing a couple of more bags in.

"I wasn't even aware you had friends.." Espio cynically muttered to himself; unheard by Vector. 

"Really?" Raymond asked in disbelief and surprise, ignoring the antics of Espio and Vector. What a coincidence, the Master emerald was with Tails! He thought he was going to have to spend the course of his lifetime searching, but there it was! And his new friends were going to even take him to it!" 

"Um…" Raymond scratched his head, suddenly noticing someone was missing. "Wait, where's Espio? He was just here…" 

At that moment, Espio materialized right in front of him as Raymond jumped back, startled. 

"Ahh! How did you do that?" Raymond asked in surprise, holding his hands out to protect himself. 

Espio shrugged indifferently. "All Chameleons can blend in with their surroundings. That's why it makes us seem 'invisible'." He carried on packing bags as Raymond turned to Vector. 

"Do you have any special powers that I might be unaware of?" Raymond cautiously asked, hoping the giant crocodile wouldn't turn invisible on him as well. 

Vector nodded and grinned. "Yeah, I can breathe fire from my mouth! Tough, isn't it?" 

Raymond processed this information slowly. "What about Charmy?" He asked of the bee. 

"The only power he has is annoying me to death!" Vector growled, crossing his arms with an indignant look upon his face. 

Charmy just laughed and buzzed by, sticking out his tongue as Vector lazily swatted at the air near the bumblebee. 

"Oh, I see…" Raymond mumbled to himself. 

Meanwhile, Vector finished packing the last of the materials and slammed the trunk shut. "Well, you coming or not?" He asked as the rest of the Chaotix hopped into the ship and started the engine. 

In response, Raymond nodded, discarding the fact that his new companions had some… interesting qualities about them in place of the priority of finding the Master Emerald, and ran over to his space-ship. He was desperate enough to bring back his loved one, to even reconsider what he was getting himself into. "Go time I guess…" Raymond flipped the power on, and both of the ships blasted away into space…

Raymond had been following Vector's ship for over a while now. It was already two in the afternoon, his watch read. Vector had told Raymond that he had some sort of tracking device that would help lead them to Sonic and his friends, so Raymond simply sat back in his seat, and sighed. Vector had promised only a couple more hours, so Raymond might as well relax and cruise through the surrounding meteors. As Raymond spied Vector's ship in the distance, slowly speeding away, Raymond pulled up the power. 

"I can't lose track of Vector!" Raymond sped up, and began going faster and faster. He had almost caught up the Vector, when… 

KABOOOOM! 

Something hit Raymond's ship hard from the back, sending him flying into a nearby planet. His momentum carried him straight forward, nose diving into the surface. 

"Ahh!" Raymond desperately tried to level the plane, but to no success. He crash landed on the planet, ejecting not a second too late. Raymond barely jumped out with a parachute attached to his back, right when the ship exploded right below him. As he floated gently to the ground, he kept thinking to himself… 

"Oh man… my ship is totaled. Now it looks like I'm stuck here…." Raymond darkly muttered, realizing the terrible situation he had basically just been thrown into. Far away, Vector and the Chaotix wouldn't even realize Raymond was gone until too late. Just like that, Raymond's fortunes had been turned upside down. Now, he'd have to find a different way, if that was even possible… 

Raymond landed feet first on the dusty ground, tearing off the parachute immediately. The smoke from the explosion made it hard to see, swirling all around Raymond as he coughed and covered his watering eyes. Suddenly, as he chanced a look up, he saw a figure approaching him through the mist, coming closer and closer by the second. Raymond gritted his teeth, and tensed up in case the intruder was hostile. Then, the mist cleared, and what he saw tore his breath away. 

"E…Emily..y?" He whispered, suddenly overtaken by immense emotions. There she was, right in front of him, smiling, with arms wide open for him to receive. It seemed like yesterday she was gone, but now, she was finally here… Raymond was overcome with so much emotion bubbling inside of him; not clearly thinking anymore as he smiled back in complete awe, and ran towards her in a trance at the sudden turn of events. However, as Raymond was running towards her, seemingly too good to be true, she pulled out a gun and shot at Raymond as he barely dove out of the way, the bullet grazing his side. 

"Huh? Emily?" He asked in complete surprise, wondering why she was trying to hurt him. In response, she hostilely growled at him. 

"You know, I've never really liked you, Raymond!" Emily started to shout at the top of her lungs. "After all I've done for you, even sacrificing my life, what do you do? You run away and hide, just like a COWARD would!" Emily shot Raymond again, barely missing him as he ducked. 

"What…? What do you mean?" Raymond asked in utter confusion. "I didn't want to leave you, but I HAD to! I wouldn't have if you didn't tell me to! I just thought you gave up your life so that I could have another chance at life! Isn't that what you said?" Raymond retaliated back as he still didn't understand what was going on. Why was Emily so angry at him…? 

"Why on earth would I want that?" Emily growled fiercely, rattling Raymond's shattered emotions. "I thought you loved me Raymond, but I guess you didn't after all! Maybe I shouldn't have saved your life after all!" She yelled, as Raymond, finally coming to terms with what was going on, understood what this was all about… 

Raymond slowly looked down towards the ground disappointedly. "Yeah…. You're right… you shouldn't have… " He replied sorrowfully, seeming to have finally snapped after hearing the one person he loved the most attacking him viciously. "I'm nothing but a miserable failure, a coward. Yeah, you're right, I'm weak."Raymond stood in front of her, arms wide open, eyes shut. "Kill me now, end it all! I should have been the one to die, not you!" He sniffed, and a lone tear traced its way down his scarred face. "Go ahead, shoot me!" Raymond demanded, ready to die. He didn't even know what he was doing anymore, but Emily putting him down too was the last straw. He couldn't possibly live on anymore…. 

Emily stood there in utter surprise as Raymond awaited his death. Then, she growled again, this time, her voice contorted. "No, you stupid idiot! That's not what you were supposed to do!" Raymond opened his eyes to ask what she meant, when all of a sudden, her body suddenly shifted until she turned back into Slash, who grinned maliciously. "Surprised to see me, Raymond?" He smirked, weapons at the ready. 

Upon seeing that it wasn't Emily all along, Raymond lowered his arms in shock. "You…. You low-life… it was you? You… You're trying to break me apart, huh? Well, it ends here, Slash!" His shock quickly vanished, and was replaced by fury; angered that Slash had tried to deceive him and impersonate Emily. 

The two of them circled dangerously around each other, teeth bared. Suddenly, Raymond reared back, and kicked the gun out of Slash's hands, sending it up flying. As Raymond jumped, trying to reach for it, Slash kicked him in the chest at full force. Raymond went flying back onto the ground as Slash snatched the gun out of midair. As he lay on the ground, Raymond tripped up Slash with his legs, sending the gun toppling to the ground in the middle of them. As both of the foxes hurried back up onto their feet, Raymond and Slash rushed to grab the gun, colliding with each other. Raymond grabbed Slash's shoulder, and flung him to the side while Slash landed another blow to Raymond's head. The red fox kicked the gun away before the white and green one could grab it, kneeing Slash in the stomach, making him gasp for air. The two of the pulled away, both of them circling once again.

"I've been told you've beaten Garry and Luke! Very, very impressive!" Slash laughed and clapped his hands sarcastically. Raymond just growled and spat at the ground near his feet in contempt.

"Well you sure seem cocky…" Raymond muttered in a sinister way. He conjectured up a ball of flame, and then flung it at Slash, who easily leaned back and ducked as the fire sailed overhead.

"I don't mean to be cliché, but really is that all you have?" Slash laughed, his mouth contorted in a smile, but his eyes glared at Raymond menacingly. The shape-shifter pulled out his twin swords, one of them green, and the other one, white. He swung them at Raymond, who sidestepped away. Irritated, Slash swung again, but this time, Raymond caught both swords on his mechanical wrist bands. Raymond then twisted his arm at an angle to lodge the swords in the armor on the sides of the wrist band. Then, he yanked it back as the swords were forcefully pulled out of Slash's grasp and were sent flying through the air behind Raymond, clattering to the ground.

Slash scowled. "Fine! If that's how it's going to be!" He snarled, and charged at Raymond. The two of them met in the middle, grappling with each other. Suddenly, the battle abruptly ended when one of the foxes reached out to kick the other in the face. As the other fox ducked, the first fox jumped over him, did a front roll, picked up the gun, and turned back around to shoot the other in the back twice. 

Slash toppled to the ground, dead as Raymond lay on the ground, panting heavily. He then closed his eyes in relief; finally, he was able to take revenge on the final commander of Malcolm's army that had started the Newark Massacre. Raymond sighed, and slowly got back up on his feet, striding over to Slash's ship parked nearby. As he did so, his thoughts wandered back about what Slash had said. That the impersonated version of Emily thought he was a coward too… 

But he knew that Emily would never think about him in that way. No matter what, even if he gave up on himself, she would still believe in him… 

Raymond walked over and picked up Slash's twin swords, feeling much better. 

"Thanks Emily again…." Raymond whispered into the night air. As he boarded the ship, he could almost hear her answer him… 

"You're welcome Raymond! Don't worry, just believe in yourself, keep fighting for what's right, and you'll be alright, I promise!" Emily winked. 

Up above Raymond, a star twinkled in the night sky, showing a small glimmer of hope in what was otherwise a dark, dark world.


	24. Chapter 24

Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 24 

Raymond was desperately trying to make up for lost time. He had long lost track of the Chaotix after his battle against Slash, and was relying on Slash's navigator to maneuver his way around. As he sped by at full speed, planets, stars, and moons rushing by as bright specks of light in the blackness of space, Raymond could only think of how he couldn't lose his only, one lead to his life's mystery in this otherwise vast universe. Throttling the engines and controls at full power, he happened to turn the corner of one planet, and was immediately stunned at what he saw right in front of his unbelieving eyes. There was the Blue Typhoon, a massive aircraft carrier, just as Vector had described. Raymond, realizing he had finally made it, grinned, and started to head towards that direction, cautiously. However, he then noticed a bleeping noise on his front dashboard, warning him of something vital.

Raymond glanced downwards, confused at what it appeared to be telling him. Then, the red fox looked back up. There, a planet dead ahead seemed to be morphing strangely. It seemed to pulsate; growing smaller and smaller, more tightly compressed. As Raymond hovered the spaceship a bit closer to the curious scene, his heart instantly sank. He didn't need to read the flashing warning signs on his monitor to understand what was going on. Apparently, that planet ahead was going to blow up. Instead of trying to escape as quickly as possible, which Raymond knew was impossible, he simply sighed in defeat, accepting his sudden turn of unfortunate fate. Had he journeyed and come all this way in life just to die in some far away part of space? Was everything he had done, all for nothing? 

Then, suddenly, a figure appeared to be flying towards the planet. He saw two other hedgehogs stare at it in amazement as it passed straight through the atmosphere, and somehow turn into a magnificent tree, attaching itself. A second passed… a few more…. several…. Raymond sensed something was going on. He put on his headset, and directed his sonar waves towards the Blue Typhoon in an attempt to piece together what was going on. Almost immediately, he wished he hadn't. There, in front of him on the screen, he witnessed Cosmo desperately pleading with Tails to shoot her, but Tails instead insisting that he couldn't. A few more words were exchanged. Then, Tails cried out his love towards Cosmo, and then fired away; the yellow beam from the Blue Typhoon racing out towards the planet and making a gigantic impact, smothering it in heavenly light. Raymond turned off the sonar waves as he saw the planet blow apart, and slumped down in his seat. 

"Just like Emily… just like Emily…" Raymond started to mutter to himself quietly. Thanks to that heroic figure, she had saved everyone's life, including his. But at a cost. And what hurt most of all was that the one who loved her had to kill her. Raymond thought back to Emily, how she selflessly sacrificed herself for him. Now, another person had done the same thing…. Raymond didn't notice the Blue Typhoon leaving or the planet eggs flying overhead. He just sat there, in his small space-craft, thinking his entire life over. Was the whole galaxy filled with other people who were willing to do the same thing? Raymond had always thought that after Emily's death that the world was such a cruel place, but now he realized that there were other people doing the exact same thing…. And Tails, who he now remembered to be his cousin, seemed to be so heart-broken… At the loss of whoever that person was… 

"Just like Emily…" Raymond quietly stated to himself again, in a trance. He reached out and grabbed the black diamond around his neck, studying it meticulously. He so, very much wanted to use it to bring back Emily, but what about Tails? Raymond grabbed his head and bent over in his seat. 

"ARGH! I don't know!… I know I have the power to bring someone back from the dead, and I really want Emily here back with me, but I don't know if I'll be able to get over the guilt if Tails knew I didn't make the choice to bring back his love…" Raymond sighed dejectedly and looked up. "What would you do, Emily? If you can hear me… please help me… I'm lost, and I need your help." 

Suddenly, he blacked out. And as he slowly opened his eyes, he found himself sitting on a far away wall, next to the one person he loved most... 

"Emily!" Raymond shouted in utter happiness. He hugged her tightly, tears starting to flow down his cheeks and face. She hugged him back in return, smiling sadly.

As the two of them released, Raymond began to study the surroundings more. Besides the wall, everything else; the sky, the ground, and the background, was all a heavenly, shining white. 

"Am I dead?" Raymond suddenly asked, as Emily shook her head. 

"No, silly!" She giggled, teasing the red fox by gently poking a finger on his muzzle. "You still have so much more to do with your life! So much more people to save and help…Because you're a hero and people need you!" 

Raymond, hearing those kind words, slowly shook his head. "No…. you're wrong…" He slowly stated. "I'm not a hero. I never was or will be." Raymond looked up sadly at Emily. "On the outside, I might seem fine and strong. But on the inside, I'm still hurting, trying to hold it all back in. I need you, Emily." As he said that, Raymond took Emily's hands in his own, causing both of them to blush. "Without you, I'm nothing," Raymond further insisted. 

Emily smiled warmly. "But look at everything you've done so far, Raymond…" In front of them, blurry images appeared of Raymond battling and beating Luke, Garry, and Slash. 

"But still, I'm getting weaker and weaker without you…" Raymond sorrowfully told Emily after the projections had died away. 

Emily softly smiled again. "I'm sure, Raymond. And if that's your choice, then I'll definitely be happy with that. But what about Tails? Doesn't he deserve his love back also?" She asked, looking Raymond in the eyes openly. 

Raymond sighed miserably. "Well that's the point. I'd love to do anything to help Tails bring her back… but at the same time I know I can't live without you..." 

"And yet you have," Emily pointed out. "I know how much you love me, and know that if you choose to help Tails instead, I'll still be happy with your choice." 

"But… I don't want to lose you!" Raymond cried out loud. "What if this is the only chance I get? To bring you back? I'd feel so terrible if I knew that I missed out on that!" He couldn't bear the thought of leaving his love forever and ever… 

In response, Emily leaned over and kissed Raymond on the cheek tenderly, trying her best to soothe his broken feelings and heart. "Don't feel that way, Raymond. Either way, you'd make someone so happy, whether it be you or Tails. But at the same time, the other person would have to deal without his love…" 

Raymond considered for a moment, then another, before starting to speak. "Well…." Tears started to run down his face as time started to move slowly; Emily awaiting Raymond's fateful choice. "But I still don't think I can live life without you Emily…. Whether it's five more minutes or fifty more years, they're both too long to bear while you're not here with me…" 

"I'll never leave you Raymond. You know I'll still always love you, and I'll always be right here." Emily answered sympathetically as she placed one hand delicately on Raymond's heart. Raymond felt a warm sensation racing up his body. Suddenly, he didn't feel so terrible anymore… 

"Well… what do you want, Emily?" Raymond asked her, wiping the tears off of his face with the back of his arm as he sniffed sorrowfully. 

"I want whatever you choose, Raymond." She told him selflessly. "I'll always stand by any decision you make." And with that, Emily kissed him right on the lips, staying there for several seconds as Raymond kissed back, relaxing, as he thought…. 

That was the last Raymond remembered before he woke up in his space-ship, jumping to a sudden start. Realizing it hadn't been real, he checked the clock: He had been sleeping for about ten minutes. Outside, there wasn't a trace of the Blue Typhoon or the suicidal planet; they had probably left long ago while he was still stuck in the vision. Raymond still remembered his entire conversation crystal clear though, so he wasn't sure if it was really a dream…

Slowly, ever so slowly, Raymond patiently took what Emily had said into consideration, and finally made his decision without any regrets or lingering thoughts; one which would change his life forever. He looked again at the black diamond in the palm of his hand, and clutched it tightly, never letting go of its cold surface; one that had changed the lives of people before, and was about to change his. Then, Raymond looked up, peering straight ahead into the blackness with a determined expression, feeling strong and in control of his life for the first time in a while. 

Raymond knew what he was going to do now. Maybe he wasn't a true hero. Not yet, anyways, but he was still going to try his best to help people that were hurting. Emily assured him that no matter what, she was never going to leave him. She was always was going to stay in his heart, watching over him. Emily was perfectly fine now, in heaven. He was still needed on earth to save people, and to comfort them. Raymond gritted his teeth, took a look around one last time, and then entered a destination on his monitor. 

DESTINATION: MOBIUS 

Raymond hit enter, and as the ship's engines heated up and blasted off, he briefly felt Emily's thoughts inside his head. 

"No matter what you think, Raymond, in MY mind, you're a true hero!" And then the sound of Emily giggling echoed inside of his mind. 

Raymond smiled warmly as he thought about his one and only love. So maybe he WAS still going to hurt a lot inside about his decision, but he knew that inside, it was the right thing to do. And that along with Emily's encouragement made all the difference. Malcolm could wait. So could war and fighting. He had a mission now, and he was going to complete it. Tails needed him, and he was going to honor that request. 

"Mobius, here I come!" Raymond shouted into the darkness as the rockets blasted away. 

-THE END OF PART ONE-


End file.
